Three judges decided to enable the summer judicial recess to continue with the criminal investigations involving the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and several of its main leaders. The decision will allow the measures of proof ordered in three cases linked to alleged corruption schemes to remain in course during January, according to judicial sources consulted by the Argentine News Agency. The judicial recess began last Friday and only urgent cases are handled, unless the judges expressly authorize their continuation.
With the judicial recess enabled, the three investigations will remain active throughout January, pending advances in the measures of proof. The measures were requested by the federal prosecutor, Cecilia Incardona, and by the head of the Prosecutor's Office for Economic Crime and Money Laundering (PROCELAC), Diego Velasco. In this case, the judges in charge of the investigations considered it necessary that the cases not be suspended during the summer break and continue their normal processing.
One of the cases is instructed by the federal judge of Lomas de Zamora, Luis Armella, and analyzes alleged money laundering and embezzlement of AFA funds through the company Sur Finanzas, linked to Ariel Vallejo, and the firm TourProdEnter, owned by businessman Javier Faroni. According to the investigation, the AFA would have acted as an intermediary in financing and sponsorship operations, with funds coming mainly from the television rights for football.
Within the framework of that case, the judge ordered raids on homes linked to Faroni and at the AFA headquarters on Viamonte and Ezeiza streets, as well as the lifting of tax, banking, and stock market secrecy, and the request for international financial information. In that case, the president of the AFA, Claudio 'Chiqui' Tapia; the treasurer Pablo Toviggino; the general secretary Cristian Malaspina; and the general director Gustavo Lorenzo were charged.
At the request of prosecutor Claudio Navas Rial, the judge ordered the lifting of the banking, financial, stock market, and tax secrecy of the AFA. The magistrate enabled the judicial recess and ordered new measures of proof, among them the testimony of the pilots of the helicopter that landed at the heliport of the property, with the objective of establishing the real ownership of the property. The property is registered in the name of Luciano Pantano and his mother, Ana Lucía Conte.
During the raids, elements linked to the AFA and documentation that reinforces the hypothesis that the true owner would be the treasurer of the entity, Pablo Toviggino, were found. This case is under a jurisdictional competence dispute between the Aguinsky court and that of federal judge Adrián González Charvay of Campana. Faroni was summoned to testify and must appear on January 19 to be formally processed.
The investigation also includes the analysis of documentation and cell phones seized during raids carried out in December at the AFA, Sur Finanzas, and different football clubs. Another of the cases is in charge of the Economic Penal judge Marcelo Aguinsky and focuses on the purchase of a luxurious mansion located in Pilar, valued at approximately 17 million dollars. The third file is in charge of the Economic Penal judge Diego Amarante and originated from a complaint by the ARCA body against the AFA for the alleged improper withholding of approximately 17 billion pesos in pension contributions. However, the investigators are analyzing whether both have the necessary economic capacity to justify the acquisition of the estate, as well as the ownership of 54 luxury vehicles and another home in a country club in the same area.
