Corruption in Argentina remains a serious problem. Argentina has long suffered from widespread and endemic corruption. Corruption remains a serious problem in the public and private sector even though the legal and institutional framework combating corruption is strong in Argentina.
A 1996 article in The New York Times noted that "payoffs, kickbacks and government corruption are considered part of everyday life" in Argentina. Bribery and fraud are also found common among the private sector, and the lack of transparency in government regulations and laws has triggered an increased uncertainty among investors.Business-Anti-Corruption Portal
The Financial Action Task Force removed Argentina from its "gray list" in October 2014, noting significant progress made by the country in improving its legislation and procedures against money laundering and illicit financing.
Extent In Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, Argentina scored 36 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). When ranked by score, Argentina ranked 104th among the 182 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with regional scores, the best score among the countries of the Americas was 75, the average score was 42 and the worst score was 10. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 89 (ranked 1), the average score was 42, and the worst score was 9 (ranked 181, in a two-way tie). Comparing the 2020 and 2021 Corruption Perception Indexes, Transparency International wrote of the Americas region that "Dropping four points compared to last year, Argentina (38) is the country in the region that has declined the most. Interference in the judiciary by political authorities is jeopardising the country’s independence and creating an impression of impunity. 2021 was also characterised by abuses of power during the pandemic: the discretionary vaccination scheme (VIP vaccination) for public officials and their cronies, non-transparent procurement and contracting, and unethical behaviour by government officials."
The Financial Times noted in 2013 that in Argentina corruption is widely considered to be "engrained", and "there is the sense that public officials are untouchable". In May 2013, sociologist Atilio Borón lamented that "the Argentinian is very accustomed to the idea that governments are corrupt, and does not seem shocked at acts of corruption," and that the corruption of politicians therefore does not prevent their reelection. "This is an economy that for the past 20 years has tolerated a legal drain of over 160 billion dollars," he added, "and this is now coming to take its revenge." A CIPCE (Center for the Investigation and Prevention of Economic Crimes) study concluded that public sector corruption alone cost the national treasury around US$10 billion from 1980 to 2006.
A major Argentine newspaper, La Nación, editorialized in October 2013 that although corruption has been a major problem in Argentina since the 1890s, it has been "on the increase" since the 1990s.
Diplomatic cables leaked in 2011 revealed that diplomats from the United States and several other Western countries had expressed deep concern about the current levels of corruption in Argentina. "Under President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner," reported The Heritage Foundation in 2013, "respect for markets and the rule of law has deteriorated and corruption has boomed."
According to Transparency International, Argentina has sufficient legislation and institutions dedicated to the prosecution of corruption in the public sector, but enforcement is highly inadequate, with the result that "impunity continues to trump integrity."
History There is a long history of serious corruption in Argentina. "Ever since independence, almost 200 years ago Argentina's foreign debt has been a source of impoverishment and corruption and the biggest scandals." Likewise, rumors or allegations of corruption have frequently been publicized by feuding political figures or factions in Argentina by way of undermining rivals.
Baring Brothers incident The earliest major episode in the history of corruption in Argentina began with an 1824 loan from the British banking house Baring Brothers, which was "the leader in financing Argentina's economic development for upwards of sixty years and the major issuer of that country's loans," with Baring Brothers' Argentine loans totaling £19.2 million by the late 1880s (nearly US$100 million). In August 1888, however, Baring Brothers was unable to place £10 million of shares and debentures in Buenos Aires Water Supply & Drainage Company, a firm that was "denounced as a feeding trough for corrupt politicians and rapacious foreign capitalists."
Baring Brothers' inability to dispose of these and other Argentinian holdings placed the firm in acute distress, forcing the Bank of England to arrange a rescue in which J.P. Morgan & Co. played the major role. The Baring Brothers episode was an important chapter not only in the history of Argentinian economics but also in the history of the global stock market. According to one source, "scandals surrounding corruption claims in connection with the loan damaged both Buenos Aires and London."
Miguel Juárez Celman President Miguel Juárez Celman, who was in office from 1886 to 1890, came to the presidency as a result of electoral fraud. Through a policy known as "Unicato," Juárez Celman, who opposed universal suffrage and considered it to be always an error "to consult the people," assumed total power in Argentina, bringing together the forces of business and politics in ways that enabled both to profit at the expense of the state treasury. An English newspaper of the time is quoted as describing Argentine corruption as follows: "Today there are dozens of men in government who are publicly accused of malpractice, who in any civilized country would be quickly punished with imprisonment, and yet none of them have been brought to justice. Meanwhile Celman is at liberty to enjoy the comfort of his farm and no one thinks to punish him." Juárez Celman was, however, eventually removed from office in the Revolution of 1890, amid allegations of corruption.
The Infamous Decade
The period between 1930 and 1943, starting when General José Félix Uriburu came to power in the 1930 coup, was known as the Infamous Decade owing to the high degree of corruption involving business, and both the ruling Concordance party and its opponents. This period was marked by electoral fraud, persecution of political opponents, and government corruption generally. The key scandal of the era centered on CHADE (Companía Hispano Argentina de Electricidad), a supplier of electricity, whose bribery of officials was so transparent that the recipients of the bribes were known as "chadístas." Another widely reported case at the time was that of the President (Speaker) of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies, Juan Kaiser, who resigned in 1940 following revelations that he had profited from the sale of of Army land in the upscale Buenos Aires suburb of El Palomar.
"Prosecutor of the Nation" Lisandro de la Torre, who was a Senator in the 1930s, earned the nickname "Prosecutor of the Nation" for the investigation into the corruption-ridden Argentine beef trade that he spearheaded in 1935. During the investigation, a disciple of de la Torre's, Enzo Bordabehere, was murdered by Ramón Váldez Cora, who was believed to have been out to kill de la Torre himself.
Juan Perón Brink Lindsey of The Wall Street Journal noted that before Perón took power (Perón ruled Argentina from 1946 to 1955, and then again from 1973 to 1974), Argentina's Supreme Court justices experienced little political tampering, and that "at the beginning of Perón's first administration in 1946, Supreme Court justices averaged 12 years on the bench."
Since 1946, wrote Lindsey, "It's been downhill," with the Supreme Court "reduced to a puppet of executive power." In 1950, writes one source, "Argentina's postwar export boom tapered off, and inflation and corruption grew." Perón was overthrown in September 1955 by a military coup; but while around 2,000 Peronist officials were detained, only 167 were charged with any crime (corruption or otherwise) despite confessions extracted under duress, and ultimately none were convicted.
One of Perón's salient legacies was the rise of the CGT labor federation, which remained among the nation's most powerful institutions even after his overthrow. The CGT diversified their growing resources through investment banking via the Banco Sindical, captive insurance, and real estate, such that by 1965 union dues accounted for only a third of the CGT's income. While these profits financed an array of generous benefits for the rank-and-file, a thriving balance sheet also increasingly engendered corruption among union leaders. Many solicited bribes from employers using the threat of strike action and one – Commercial Union leader Armando March – was convicted in 1969 of embezzling up to US$30 million from his union's accounts over the course of the decade.
Isabel Perón and the Triple A Perón returned to Argentina in 1973 and died in office a year later. His widow and successor, Isabel Perón, was ousted in a March 1976 coup amid mounting political and economic chaos as well as congressional investigations into embezzlement charges of her own. She was indicted two months after the coup for the use in 1975 of around a million dollars from the Cruzada de Solidaridad charity fund to settle a probate dispute with the late Eva Duarte's family.
The Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Triple A) death squad, which claimed 1,100 to 2,000 lives, reached the height of its influence during Mrs. Perón's tenure. Organized in 1973 by Perón's secretary, José López Rega, it was largely financed by funds embezzled from the Ministry of Social Welfare (to which López Rega was appointed Minister). Some Triple A squad leaders – notably Rodolfo Almirón, Aníbal Gordon, and Raúl Guglielminetti – perpetrated numerous high-profile ransom kidnappings in subsequent years with the cooperation of both criminal gangs such as the Puccio family and rogue elements in the police and intelligence services.
Montoneros and David Graiver The Triple A's chief nemesis at the time, the far-left terrorist group Montoneros, claimed up to 1,000 lives from 1970 until their elimination in 1976. They also perpetrated a number of high-profile ransom kidnappings, notably that of Jorge and Juan Born in September 1974. The Born brothers, directors of what was then one of Argentina's largest conglomerates (Bunge y Born) paid US$60 million for their release in June 1975, a world record at the time. At least US$14 million of these proceeds were laundered by David Graiver, a real-estate developer. Graiver fled Argentina in 1975 and settled in Manhattan, from where he bought controlling stake in a variety of banks in the U.S. and elsewhere. He reportedly died in a plane crash near Acapulco in August 1976, however, leaving US$45 million in bad debts that resulted in the collapse of American Bank & Trust – at the time the 4th largest bank failure in U.S. history. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau was skeptical that Graiver died in the crash, and indicted Graiver for the failure of American Bank & Trust; Graiver's banks in Argentina and elsewhere also failed. New York Judge Arnold Fraiman ultimately ruled in January 1979 that Graiver was deceased, although he did so with reservations.
Military junta