In a historic move that marks a before and after in the oversight of national sports, the Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA), led by Andrés Vázquez, has formalized a strong extension of the criminal complaint against the leadership of the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The collection agency directly accused Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia and his main operator, Pablo Toviggino, of leading an “illegal tax association” designed for the diversion of capital and systematic tax evasion through the use of false invoices
.This judicial presentation, filed before the economic criminal court of Judge Diego Amarante, is not an isolated event. It adds to a pre-existing investigation where the AFA was already being observed for the alleged misappropriation of taxes and social security resources for a figure that freezes the blood: about 19 billion pesos. In this new instance, the ARCA detected additional maneuvers for a total tax loss of $289,336,519.66, consolidating the thesis that there is an “organized structure
aimed at committing tax crimes through false billing.”
The investigation, which covers the period between 2023 and 2025, has uncovered a “ploy to cover up the real recipients of the money”. The agency detected that the AFA deployed a contracting scheme with suppliers that lack “economic, financial and operational capacity”, merely functioning as “powerhouses” for apocryphal receipts to justify non-existent expenses
and reduce the tax burden in a fraudulent manner.The complaint is not limited to Tapia and Toviggino; the judicial siege extends to Secretary Víctor Blanco Rodríguez, leader Cristian Malaspina and Director General Gustavo Lorenzo.
The modus operandi of this alleged criminal organization included a sophisticated stage of financial concealment. According to the letter, 77.11% of the investigated payments were made through checks, while only 22.89% were
channeled through bank transfers.For the ARCA, this massive use of checks with multiple successive endorsements deliberately sought to “break the payment chain”, making it difficult for justice to identify the final beneficiaries of the funds.
It was detected that these values ended up being used for operations totally unrelated to football, such as the purchase of a farm reported by BLD SA or the purchase of beef declared by the Rioplatense Refrigerator.
The list of companies used in this evasion scheme is extensive and reveals the magnitude of the maneuver. A first group of firms under the spotlight includes Construcciones Far West SRL, Maxstore SA, Meroka SRL, Luicom SA, Holdembrog SA, Consultek Consultora y Serviços SRL, Belesan SAS, Albamonte Construcciones SRL, Logistic Winter SRL, Central Hotel SRL, and Inapey SA. A second group, detected through electronic billing crosses, points to Alianza Producciones SA, Xmart Solutions SRL, Capadoccia SRL, Prussian Blue SRL, Nuevo Expresso San Ignacio SRL, GYE Turismo SRL, Abidan SA, MB Canning and Ultrecht SRL. Most of these companies were listed as “unreliable”, with non-existent addresses, without employees or machinery according
to what was invoiced.The ARCA has presented a surgical breakdown of monthly fraud over the past year, demonstrating that the evasion was not a mistake, but a system: March 2024: $14,540,664.95 April 2024: $11,930,157.82 May 2024:
$13,396,603.51 June 2024: $17,878,991.20 August 2024: $19,517,361.40
September 2024: $15,612,972.69 October 2024: $16,268,997.80
