MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Contractor testifies Adorni paid $245,000 in cash to remodel his country home; government rejects the figure

From Oct 2024 to Jul 2025, the contractor renovated a 400sqm lot, adding a waterfall pool, BBQ, kitchen, electrical, exterior works, floors, walls, and windows

Contractor Matías Tabar testified on Monday before Argentine federal courts that Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni paid him $245,000 in cash for renovation works carried out at the residence in the Indio Cua gated community, in Exaltación de la Cruz, Buenos Aires province, in a statement that constitutes one of the most significant developments in the alleged illicit enrichment case the official is facing. The Casa Rosada rejected the figure and announced it will request an expert assessment to refute the testimony.

Tabar, a partner at architecture firm Alta Arquitectura, gave videotaped testimony before federal prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita at the Comodoro Py courthouse. According to the contractor, the works were carried out between October 2024 and July 2025 on a 400-square-metre lot and included flooring, walls, a swimming pool with waterfall, a barbecue area, a new kitchen, windows, electrical installation, and exterior works. Tabar specified that he received the payments in two stages and without invoicing: $55,000 in 2024 and $190,000 in 2025, all in cash and handed over personally by Adorni. The contractor delivered to the prosecutor expense documentation, budgets, and his mobile phone, the latter for forensic examination due to deleted messages from his WhatsApp exchanges with the official.

The statement adds a sensitive element to the Cabinet Chief's defense. Tabar said the official had contacted him before the hearing and offered “help” or to have his team advise him, an offer the contractor turned down after consulting his own lawyer. The witness also noted that during the renovations Adorni rented another house within the same gated community, for which he paid an additional $13,000. The main property had been acquired in November 2024 in the name of Bettina Angeletti, the Cabinet Chief's wife, for $120,000 — half the amount declared for the subsequent renovation — part of which was financed through a $100,000 mortgage loan granted by two private individuals.

The official response was immediate. Sources consulted at the Casa Rosada and within Adorni's inner circle stated that “that is not the amount” and announced they would request an expert assessment and possibly an ocular inspection of the property. “Anyone who knows the house knows it isn't worth that money,” official sources said, describing the costs as “exaggerated” and suggesting that the invoicing originally promised by the architect “was never delivered.” The government maintains that Adorni's sworn asset declaration, due by May 31, will dispel all doubts, without explaining why the official has not submitted it sooner.

The case, in the hands of federal judge Ariel Lijo and prosecutor Pollicita, had advanced following the Cabinet Chief's appearance in Congress on April 29, where Adorni refused to resign and declared: “I have committed no crime and I will prove it in court.” The file is now analyzing more than 18 family trips made since 2022, the two apartments purchased in Buenos Aires and the Indio Cua house, as well as family debts amounting to $335,000. The General Directorate of Economic and Financial Advisory in Investigations (DAFI) of the Attorney General's Office has been called in to carry out the comprehensive expert analysis of the official's expense and income flows.