Witnesses testify in ongoing illicit enrichment case against Adorni

Two retirees will testify on Wednesday in a case investigating Chief of Staff Manuel Adorni for alleged illicit enrichment. The pensioners are just two of the four women who lent him large sums of money to buy properties in loans overseen by a notary. Adorni has been under scrutiny since last month after news broke about properties and expensive trips he took in the past two years, since becoming a public official in Javier Milei’s government. The expenses allegedly don’t match his declared estate or income. The investigation is focused on finding if Adorni’s assets increased without justification since he became part of the national government in December 2023 — first as Milei’s spokesperson and, since late 2025, as chief of staff — and if he could afford the trips and new properties on his current income. Some of those assets include an apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Caballito he bought in November 2025 for US$230,000, where he is currently living. The previous owners of that apartment were the two pensioners, who received US$30,000 and agreed that Adorni would pay the remaining US$200,000 within a year. Adorni is set to pay the loan in installments with no interest rate. The deal was signed in a contract overseen by notary Adriana Nechevenko, who testified last week and spoke to the press about the details of the operation. Nechevenko said in an interview with Infobae that the operation was done in this manner because Adorni is “an acquaintance or friend” of the son of one of the two women, as their children go to the same school “or something like that.” “That’s why it’s logical that there are no interests,” Nechevenko said. The man is scheduled to testify next week. The notary said that it was the women’s idea to only receive part of the money upfront and receive the rest of the money within a year. Asked about where Adorni got the funds to buy the apartment, Nechevenko said that “it was not mandatory for him to give explanations” to her about it. “If he declares it has a legal origin, it’s enough,” she said. However, she said that the US$200,000 will come from the sale of another apartment in Buenos Aires where he used to live. The other loan Last week, two other women — mother and daughter — testified that they loaned Adorni US$100,000 in November 2024 with an interest rate of 11%. In this case the money was given to him in full and in cash. The then Presidential Spokesperson used the loan to buy another home in a gated community in Exaltación de la Cruz, around 80 kilometers away from his Caballito apartment. He paid US$120,000 for the house. The same day he received the loan, he mortgaged his old apartment to pay for the new one in Caballito, Nechevenko said. The two women — the mother is a retired police officer, and her daughter is currently in the force — met Adorni the same day they signed the loan agreement. Nechevenko was the one who introduced them, and said she didn’t charge them for the operation. “I have clients, and I brought them together. I know Adorni will pay them,” the notary stated. The women testified that they got the US$100,000 through an inheritance and labor trials they won and said it was the first time they took part in this type of operation. They also said that Adorni has paid them US$30,000 upfront and that he still owes them US$70,000, due next November. Nechevenko said she has known Adorni for at least 15 years, but had never done any real estate business with him before. “It happened all at once,” she said in the interview with Infobae. The notary added that Adorni decided to leave his old apartment in the Parque Chacabuco neighborhood and buy the one in Caballito due to “security reasons.”