Horacio Verbitsky - "Swiftgate" and "Milkgate"

"Swiftgate" and "Milkgate"

In 1991, Verbitsky came to national attention when he reported in Pagina 12 that US Ambassador Terence Todman had complained to the Argentine government that Emir Yoma, a brother-in-law and advisor of president Carlos Menem, had asked for a bribe from the US corporation Swift Armour meatpacking. The story soon became a national scandal known as "Swiftgate". Menem in turn accused Verbitsky of being a "criminal journalist" and Pagina of being financed by narcotrafficking.

Verbitsky later played a role in reporting "Milkgate", a scandal in which Menem's private secretary Miguel Angel Vicco was linked to the sale of spoiled milk to a government agency, forcing his resignation. In 1992, Verbitsky published a compilation of the Menem administration's scandals titled I Steal for the Crown, a quip reportedly from Interior Minister Jose Luis Manzano. The book became a national bestseller.

Menem was eventually forced to change half his cabinet in an attempt to regain the lost political credibility.