“There were 45 days of systematic lies” and “the case has absolutely no basis” were the last statements that let Manuel Adornilast Friday, about the course of the file that has him under investigation in the Comodoro Py courts.
In recent weeks, however, the cause alleged illicit enrichment advanced at a sustained pace and Justice consolidated elements that, without clearing the doubts about your lifestyle and assetsmotivated the researchers to deepen the search for information.
The trips, cash expenses and properties that Adorni has added since he has been in public office – without giving up the ones he already had – have been confirmed by the prosecutor’s office in Gerardo Pollicita the initial suspicion that there could be a imbalance in the income and expenditure equation of the official.
The prosecutor seeks to add new information this Monday with the declaration of Matías Tabarthe contractor who made renovations on the house that the Adorni family bought in the country Golf Club Indio Cuain Exaltation of the Cross. Pollicita asked Tabar to come forward with estimates, quotes, contracts and all available information about his work on the Adorni lot.
“It will be demonstrated that everything is justified”the official said on Friday, in dialogue with radio El Observador, and he once again stated that he will give explanations only when asked by Justice.
He said that he was innocent, that “wrong conclusions” had been made about his situation and, taking as a reference trips that are not accredited in Justice, he stated that many “lies” had been told about his private life. “I’ve never been to Disney.”he defended himself, although without identifying who had accused him of traveling there.
He justified as a decision of a “personal nature”, however, those other destinations for which there are records, such as Aruba, Madrid or Punta del Este, trips made by him or his partner, Betina Angeletti. “I don’t have to justify things that aren’t wrong.”held.
What Justice is reviewing at this time is whether the expenses behind these vacation decisions – paid, for the most part, with dollars in cash – or other additional expenses were made with declared money by the official.
On Friday, Adorni avoided referring to this point and stuck to the strategy he has deployed so far. “I cannot interfere in judicial cases,” he concluded, despite the fact that there is no prohibition for him to explain publicly, for example, how he incorporated his new properties.
According to the documents and testimonies collected by Justice, the two real estate transactions that Adorni carried out as an official – the purchase of the house in a country and the Caballito apartment – were possible thanks to the fact that four people, in two different operations, provided him with a total of $300,000.
In the first, there was a cash loan, for a total of 100,000 dollars that was taken out the day the Chief of Staff deeded the house in Indio Cua; in the second, a financing of 200,000 dollars that took the form of a “mortgage against price balance”: The sale of the Caballito apartment was completed, but Adorni paid only 15% of the deeded value in cash, a rarity according to specialists.
That and other particularities of the movements, such as the absence of interest on one of those loans or the fact that Adorni did not directly know the people who lent him the money – two retirees and two women from the Federal Police -, generated doubts about the operationaccording to sources involved in the investigation.
Nor did it help that Pablo Martín Feijoothe person who, in fact, carried out the second real estate operation, affirmed under oath before the prosecutor that the agreement with Adorni included a additional payment of $65,000outside of writing. Feijoo’s statement made the purchase and sale of the apartment – written below the market price – more credible, but he awarded the Chief of Staff an irregular payment that, according to what he claimed in court, Adorni still owes him.
According to the evidence gathered by the prosecutor, In November of this year Adorni will have to respond for $270,000, almost the entire debt incurred.. He could face it with the sale of his apartment in Parque Chacabuco, on Assembly Street, on which he had a $100,000 mortgage.
The missing piece
Outside of loans and real estate agreements, in Justice take note of a series of expenses that already exceed the $100,000. It is an axis of the investigation that has to do with the life that the Chief of Staff led during these last two and a half years. A part of these expenses can find their origin in the almost $49,000 that Adorni declared at the end of 2024.
That list includes trips, debt cancellations and various cash payments, among other elements that stretch the dollar amounts: Adorni allocated $30,000 for a percentage of one of the debts; others $30,000 to pay the cash part of the apartment in Caballito and others $20,000 to buy Indio Cua’s house.
Other smaller amounts are added to that base of $80,000: 5000 dollars to pay entry to the country; more than $14,000 on Aruba flights and accommodations and others 6000 dollars that Angeletti spent on another trip to Madrid.
For all these expenses, the prosecutor Pollicita could eventually summon Adorni to ask for explanations because the crime of enrichment illicit admits a reversal in the burden of proof. When Justice finds an appreciable growth in an official’s assets, it may require him to justify the origin of those funds.
