Argentine Chief of Staff admits hiding half a million dollars from asset declaration

Argentina's Chief of Staff, Manuel Adorni, has admitted to concealing approximately half a million dollars from his official asset declarations, acknowledging that the funds were savings kept "off the books" with his wife, originating from his private sector work.

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We didn't declare it because the way to escape the old politics was to have savings in the black. I never would have considered saving in the black in those years.

"We didn't declare it because the way to escape the old politics was to have savings in the black," Adorni said in an interview. He claimed he never would have considered saving "in the black" in past years. Adorni, who is currently under investigation by the judiciary for alleged illicit enrichment, submitted his 2025 asset declaration to the Anti-Corruption Office and is rectifying his 2023 and 2024 declarations.

He explained that the assets being added to his declarations stem from years of accumulated savings from private sector work and profits from cryptocurrency investments. "The mea culpa I make is for having dragged an involuntary error, and I will pay everything that corresponds," he stated, adding that he would regularize any tax obligations arising from the rectification. He also detailed that part of the funds came from Bitcoin investments made between 2014 and 2018, where he stated they invested $200,000 and gained $300,000.

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The mea culpa I make is for having dragged an involuntary error, and I will pay everything that corresponds.

These statements contrast sharply with Adorni's previous assertions. On April 29, he told Congress that his declarations included "all the details of the assets" and that "there was never any concealment." On March 25, he told journalists that "rest assured that everything that should be declared is declared in each of the agencies as it corresponds."

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Reconstructing the story, we invested $200,000 and gained $300,000.

Adorni is being investigated for illicit enrichment due to alleged irregularities in his assets, including cash payments without invoices for an apartment in Buenos Aires and a house in an exclusive suburb, which he had not declared until recently. He also referred to the house, registered solely in his wife's name, stating it was "100% in my wife's name, and that was not reflected in the asset declaration, so it is something that, among so many messes, I am correcting; these are formalisms."

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That house was registered 100% in my wife's name, and that was not reflected in the asset declaration, so it is something that, among so many messes, I am correcting; these are formalisms.