Manuel Adorni, Argentina’s cabinet secretary and President Javier Millei’s longtime press secretary, has given an account of about $513,000 that he has kept off his books over the years. He said that explains why he hid $500,000 in Bitcoin profits. But his own trades, past videos and filings tell a different story.
“In 2013 I entered the world of Bitcoin. Then in 2014 I started investing heavily (…) and between 2014 and 2018 I made significant profits. I invested about $200,000 and earned about $300,000,” Adorni said. said La Nación. This money, which he had saved together with his wife, had not been disclosed until now.
Mr. Adorni has been under investigation on suspicion of illicit enrichment since late March. He will need to prove sources of funds and assets that were not reflected in previous financial disclosure reports. as reported The Financial Times reported on June 10 that the Adornis were saving money under the table “like other Argentines” and that their early cryptocurrency transactions took place long before he came to power. he submitted Amended asset declaration That same night, hours after a federal investigation by the Anti-Corruption Bureau and Revenue and Customs into alleged ill-gotten gains began in earnest.
Bitcoin can mint such money. The problem is that the records he points to don’t match the story he told.
Adorni spoke about the specific trade on the broadcast. In one wallet, he said, he bought 13 Bitcoins in August 2017 for $3,356 each, added two more Bitcoins later that year, sold 10 Bitcoins in March 2018, and sold the rest within a few weeks. Fernando Molina, data expert at Blockworks, announced the following wallet: fit explanation. Blockchain confirms its shape: Approximately 15 Bitcoins were deposited in 3 deposits in 2017, and 15 Bitcoins were withdrawn in 2 transactions in 2018, but the address is currently empty. His own price cleared nearly $60,000.
That’s real money. But that’s only a fraction of the $300,000 profit he described, entirely between 2017 and 2018. However, his Bitcoin story started in 2014, when he said he had other wallets, but no details were given.
Contradictions in Adorni’s Bitcoin story
In a 2020 talk sponsored by wallet app Lemon, which is still available on YouTube, Adorni said he discovered cryptocurrencies “five or six years ago” when Bitcoin was trading near $6,000. Bitcoin first hit $6,000 in October 2017, but by 2022 he was calling Bitcoin too volatile and saying he would prefer stablecoins.
His most recent asset declaration has additional dates that do not apply to either. The virtual currencies he actually reported are held through virtual currency exchanges such as Binance and Lemon. You entered your account between 2021 and 2023 As local media reported. According to a report in local newspaper Ambito, the largest new line available is approximately $513,000 in US dollar cash, which will be recorded as proceeds from the sale of assets.
Prosecutors are also considering the amount spent. Federal Judge Ariel Rijo and Prosecutor Gerardo Policita are looking into real estate, renovations and cash depleted from public salaries. The architect who renovated the family’s country house in May Adorni testified that he paid him $245,000 in cash..
That one-time payment exceeds the annual salary for the position.
Crypto and Miles Government: Here We Go Again
The lawsuit comes at a government already plagued by doubts about cryptocurrencies. Millay is a person of interest in the investigation into LIBRA, a February 2025 meme coin he promoted on X that collapsed, costing buyers approximately $251 million. Argentina’s House of Representatives reopened the investigation in April.
A person threads two scandals. Mauricio Novelli, the entrepreneur behind LIBRA, said: Running investment courses taught by Adorni in 2022And when Novelli brought his American partner Hayden Davis to Casa Rosada for a Libra soiree, Adorni was among those in the room.
Milley has said she supports him and will not call for his resignation. Patricia Bullrich, who leads the Senate bloc, was even sharper. “This is not only a mistake, but an ethical lapse,” she said, as reported by La Nación newspaper.
Opinions of Argentinian Bitcoin Enthusiasts
Adorni’s $BTC This story does not match what Argentine Bitcoin veterans experienced. Franco Amati, an early Bitcoin adopter and enthusiast from Argentina, said that during the period that Adorni refers to as his serious entry into the digital asset space (when the $200,000 investment was made), buying large amounts was not easy.
“Was there a $100,000 Bitcoin purchase transaction in Argentina in 2014 (as Manuel Adorni claims)? They are small in number, difficult to complete, and require multiple sellers to reach the total amount. However, if you check old emails, you will see several transactions (in this example it was around $95,000),” Amati said. Posted On X, attach a screenshot of the email mentioned above.
Another famous Argentine $BTC Loxom early adopter and Bitcoin advocate Carlos Maslaton also commented on Adorni’s Bitcoin case. Maslaton claimed that at the time mentioned by Adorni, he was running an over-the-counter desk as part of Zapo Bank, one of the oldest exchanges and cryptocurrency platforms. The majority of Xapo’s users were from Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. The South American country has not been Argentina’s most active market, even though Argentines account for more than 80% of the business.
“We can reconstruct in detail what Bitcoin was and how it worked from 2013 to 2015, which Mr. Adorni cited to justify his injustices. Any Bitcoin activist in Argentina at that time can describe something similar about his own circle,” Maslaton said. be familiar with With X.
Molina from Blockworks also added an interesting fact. Adorni said he invested heavily in Bitcoin in 2014, but according to the numbers registered on the Bitcoin blockchain, “out of all wallets (3 million) in 2014, only 2.86% (87,000 wallets) held assets worth $10,000 or more.” $BTC. 0.48% (14,000 wallets) held more than $56,000. average $BTC In 2014, the amount held was approximately USD 2,378 or $4.22 $BTC”
Although Adorni just revealed the details of one wallet, he said he uses multiple wallets to manage the amount. However, given Molina’s numbers and Amati and Marathon’s comments, the state of Bitcoin adoption in Argentina casts serious doubts on the Argentine minister’s talk about Bitcoin.
These new details have made prosecutors even more concerned, and Mr. Adorni said: face Deeper inspection.
