Former ANDIS Head and 18 Others Charged in Corruption Case

Federal Judge Sebastián Casanello on Monday charged Diego Spagnuolo, former director of the Disability Agency (ANDIS), and 18 other defendants in a case stemming from scandalous audio recordings about alleged illicit negotiations between the agency and drugstores. The charges are serious: active bribery (kickbacks), fraud against the state, criminal association, and incompatible negotiations. However, the Federal Court ordered an expert analysis of the audio recordings. The list of those charged includes Diego Orlando Spagnuolo, Daniel María Garbellini, Miguel Ángel Calvete, and others, all accused of criminal association, defrauding the public administration, bribery, and incompatible negotiations. The case began with the release of audio recordings attributed to Spagnuolo. "The Agency was co-opted and used as a means of enrichment for the members of the organization, to the clear detriment of its public purpose: the protection and care of people with disabilities," the judge warned in his ruling. Casanello also stated that "the criminal scheme uncovered seems to have even blurry margins and does not end with the facts proven here." The original complaint was filed by lawyer Gregorio Dalbón, but the audio recordings were not included as evidence. The defense argued that they are illegal, created using Artificial Intelligence, and requested the case be dismissed, which has so far been rejected. The recordings mention a 3% commission for Karina Milei. Spagnuolo is accused of being one of the alleged leaders of a "criminal association" that used ANDIS to enrich itself. According to Judge Casanello and Prosecutor Franco Picardi, the other alleged leaders of that gang, who were also charged, are Daniel Garbellini, former number two at ANDIS; Miguel Ángel Calvete and Pablo Atchabahian, two defendants linked to drugstores. The magistrate's ruling points to rigged tenders in favor of a specific drugstore and price surcharges investigated by Prosecutor Picardi. Within ANDIS itself, there are indications that the group may have extended the logic of intermediation, privileges, and price surcharges to other areas and actors. "The expansion of the business, the magnitude of the amounts, and a certain audacity (for example, by ignoring complaints from displaced entrepreneurs or dissatisfied officials) suggest that this was not an isolated incident and could have another level of complicity."