camarilla

plural camarillas

1. A secret, usually sinister, group of conspiring advisors close to the leadership; a cabal.

   The negotiation dripped with bad faith on both sides, with a powerful Austrian camarilla always seeing it as a short-term deal with the Hungarians to be followed by retribution in due course.

   2013, Simon Winder, Danubia, Picador, published 2014, page 369

   1 more example

   The same lack of accountability has been even more disastrous for the two state-owned banks, which exist primarily to funnel IMF and World Bank funds to the president and his camarilla in the form of unsecured loans.

   1990 September 20, Wall Street Journal