AFA scandal: ARCA detected irregularities in a company linked to Toviggino that laundered USD 1.4 million

The Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA) detected extensive financial and structural irregularities in Malte SRL, a company that laundered assets for 1.4 million dollars and that maintains direct links with the environment of Pablo Toviggino, current treasurer of the Football Association Argentinian (AFA). The agency's official report places the firm at the center of a criminal investigation involving leaders in the management of the AFA, including President Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia and Toviggino himself. Suspicions include crimes of tax evasion, misappropriation of funds and the use of shell companies within a structure that is now

being analyzed by the Justice.

According to the documentation prepared by ARCA, Malte SRL was declared by the AFIP as a “power plant without economic and/or financial operational capacity”, after detecting operating patterns compatible with shell companies. The official report is convincing: “Malte SRL lacks real economic capacity to justify its volume of equity and commercial movements, presenting repeated inconsistencies in its activity”.

Among the anomalies identified, there are frequent changes of fiscal address, a multiplicity of unrelated social objects and repeated transfers of high-end vehicles, machinery and buildings, all with little documentary traceability.

The technical analysis included the monitoring of electronic transactions and large invoicing between related companies, many of them for concepts far removed from the formal activity declared by Malte SRL and its counterparties. The file also revealed an atypical labor structure: the company registered only one declared worker in all the periods analyzed, domiciled in Buenos Aires, while the company established its tax offices in Santiago del Estero.

In addition, ARCA detected that the IP addresses used to issue receipts were shared with other firms in the same framework, including Carbello SRL, Serviços Lindor SA and Soma SRL, which reinforces the hypothesis of a coordinated billing circuit between related companies. The report also highlights that Malte SRL did not act as a retention agent in periods with significant purchase volumes, specifically in the years 2020, 2021, 2024 and 2025, a situation considered incompatible with the registered level of billing

.

Added to this is the detection of services billed by the notary Gilda Milani, which links the company to Luciano Pantano, another actor mentioned in the investigation. One of the most striking points for the researchers was the money laundering of assets worth 1.4 million dollars, carried out under the protection of Law 27,743 on fiscal secrecy. According to the report, this maneuver occurs in a context of operations with the AFA whose traceability is “indeterminable”. The report states: “The company registered large volume transactions with the Argentine Football Association, without financial support or operating personnel commensurate with the amounts involved

.”

The revelations come in parallel with the advance of Justice on the leadership of Argentine football. Federal judge Diego Amarante summoned the president of the AFA, Claudio Tapia, the treasurer Pablo Toviggino and other members of the board of directors to the inquiry.

In addition, it banned them from leaving the country in the context of a case for alleged misappropriation of tax and social security contributions that exceed 19.3 billion Argentine pesos.

According to the court complaint, the AFA withheld and did not deposit those funds between March 2024 and September 2025, in a scheme that, according to the prosecution, operated through direct orders between the entity's main managers. The request for investigation promoted by ARCA is based on documentary evidence and internal testimonies from the AFA itself, which rule out a possible lack of financial resources and point to a deliberate decision to fail to comply with tax obligations

.

The file includes statements from the manager of Control and Administration, Mónica Bouvet, who described a system in which the authorization of transfers depended exclusively on the treasurer's order, while the official balance sheets were jointly signed by Tapia, Toviggino and the Secretary General. The case also mentions maneuvers to divert funds through shell companies abroad and companies incorporated in tax havens, linked to the financial structure of the AFA during the administration of Tapia and Toviggino

.

Between 2021 and 2025, the bank would have channeled more than 300 million dollars out of the Argentine banking circuit, using intermediaries and offshore firms such as TourProdenter LLC and Global FC LLC. These operations are being investigated for alleged money laundering and fraudulent administration. In the specific case of Malte SRL, the AFIP concluded that it is an apocryphal or shell company, created to simulate operations and facilitate evasion maneuvers. Its inclusion in the e-apoc database as a “power plant without operating capacity” implies that the company cannot justify the flows of funds and assets declared to the

treasury.

The investigation also detected the participation of family members and relatives of football leaders in the administration and control of related companies, reinforcing suspicions about the existence of a corporate framework aimed at channeling resources outside traditional controls. With the impetus of ARCA, the criminal case now keeps the AFA's management under strict judicial surveillance. Judge Amarante summoned the main managers to testify and ordered restrictive measures, including the prohibition of leaving the country, given the “seriousness of the facts investigated and the severity of the expected penalty” provided for in Argentine criminal tax legislation.

The AFA defense tried to close the case on the grounds of lack of action, but the Justice rejected that approach and confirmed the continuity of the investigation, which could open a new chapter of tension between the institutional ordering process promoted by the national government and the current management of Argentine football.