MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine economy ministry secretary resigns over seven undeclared properties in Miami

The investigation identified the companies Genova LLC and Waki LLC as the vehicles used to acquire the properties, located in Palm Beach county and Miami

Argentine Economy Minister Luis Caputo on Sunday accepted the resignation of Infrastructure Coordination Secretary Carlos Frugoni, following a media investigation that revealed the official failed to declare to Argentine tax authorities seven apartments in the state of Florida, acquired through two limited liability companies incorporated in Delaware. Frugoni, who had been in the post for just four months, now faces a complaint for alleged illicit enrichment and malicious omission in his asset declarations.

The investigation, published by news channel A24, identified the companies Genova LLC and Waki LLC as the vehicles used to acquire the properties, located in Palm Beach county and Miami. The apartments, with estimated values of between $150,000 and $216,000 each, did not appear in sworn declarations filed with the Anti-Corruption Office or the Revenue and Customs Control Agency (ARCA). Two commercial companies linked to the official were also omitted. When approached by the media, Frugoni acknowledged the facts: “I made a mistake. I was rectifying this situation because I am now a national official. I was wrong,” he said, adding that he already paid taxes on the properties in the United States.

The admission did not halt the public and judicial pressure. According to sources at the Economy Ministry, the decision to accept the resignation was taken directly by Caputo. “It was a dismissal,” a government source told La Nación. Frugoni will be replaced by Fernando Herrmann, the current Transport Secretary, while Mariano Plencovich, until now the Under-Secretary of Road Transport, will take over that portfolio.

The case sits within a broader context of simultaneous challenges to asset transparency inside Javier Milei's government. Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni faces a separate judicial investigation led by judge Ariel Lijo and prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita over the purchase of two Buenos Aires apartments and a house in a gated community in Buenos Aires province through private mortgages, also absent from his sworn declarations. Meanwhile, ARCA chief Andrés Vázquez is the subject of a formal indictment request over the alleged malicious omission of three Miami properties valued at more than two million dollars. Buenos Aires city's Public Integrity Office had previously sanctioned Frugoni on multiple occasions for failing to file asset declarations on time, which had even led to his temporary disqualification from holding public office in the city.

The accumulation of asset disclosure scandals comes ahead of Cabinet Chief Adorni's appearance before the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday, in what is expected to be a politically charged informational session, with Milei present in the chamber.