The offensive against the leadership of Argentine soccer is deepening and a system of illegal withholding of social security and tax funds for more than $11.5 billion is being exposed
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The national government took a new step in its strategy of institutional reorganization and fight against entrenched privileges in Argentine soccer. Through the Revenue Collection and Customs Control Agency (ARCA), the State submitted to the courts the documentation required in the context of the criminal complaint against the Argentine Football Association (AFA) for misappropriation of taxes and withholding of social security contributions, a scheme that reaches multimillion figures and directly implicates its president, Claudio "Chiqui" Tapia.
According to judicial sources, ARCA complied with Judge Diego Amarante's request and submitted to the Economic Criminal Court all the supporting documentation for the complaint, in addition to formally confirming the accusation. With this procedure completed, the Prosecutor's Office is now in a position to rule on whether a formal criminal investigation should be opened.
ARCA presentó la documentación contra la AFA por falta de aportes.
The original complaint, driven by Javier Milei's government, states that between December of last year and this past September AFA engaged in the misappropriation of taxes and the illegal withholding of social security contributions for an amount exceeding 7 billion pesos. Specifically, ARCA initially estimated that the damage to the State amounted to $7,593,903,512.23.
In that filing, the tax collection agency pointed directly at Claudio Tapia, arguing that he was "the person who held a high-level executive position at the time the acts were committed", explicitly identifying him as responsible within AFA's chain of command.
Asociación del Fútbol Argentino.
Far from being an isolated episode, ARCA later expanded the criminal complaint, adding new periods under suspicion and sharply increasing the total amount of the tax damage. In that expansion, the agency reported alleged tax evasion corresponding to March and May 2024, and to the period between July of that year and this past July, in addition to social security evasion between March and September 2024. The accumulated total amounts to $11,759,643,331.62, a figure that exposes the magnitude of the alleged scheme.
Both court filings were submitted by Vanina Vidal, head of the Criminal Division of ARCA's Large Taxpayers Control sector, who detailed the legal framework of the events. In its brief, the agency explained: "The law establishes a period of thirty (30) consecutive days after the deadline for payment of the withheld tax/social security resource; therefore, the crime of misappropriation of taxes and social security resources is consummated by the total or partial omission of the deposit of the withheld tax/resource when the legally established period for making that deposit has ended."
ARCA.
After the original complaint, Judge Amarante had expressly required ARCA to confirm the accusation and attach all supporting documentation, a step that has already been completed. Now, the case file is at a decisive stage, awaiting the prosecutor's decision on the formal start of the criminal investigation.
In parallel, the Government continues to tighten the judicial net around the financial network surrounding AFA's leadership. Weeks ago, ARCA filed a complaint against Sur Finanzas, a financial company linked to Ariel Vallejo, a businessman connected to Tapia and to numerous Argentine soccer clubs. According to the filing by DGI-ARCA, the firm allegedly evaded 3.3 billion pesos corresponding to the check tax and managed more than 800 billion pesos belonging to individuals without verifiable economic capacity or who simply did not exist.
In that context, the federal court in Lomas de Zamora ordered simultaneous raids on Sur Finanzas, AFA, the Superliga, and 18 soccer clubs, where authorities seized documents, computers, and cell phones. In that case, three individuals linked to the financial company are already under arrest, accused of concealing key documentation.
