The document revealed that Faroni company received 30% of all international commercial revenues of the AFA and, additionally, a 10% surcharge on expenditures related to supposed logistics services since December 2021, a scheme that is now under severe judicial scrutiny. On January 2, Judge Paula Petazzi decided to decline jurisdiction and send the case to federal court to avoid duplications. Tofoni appealed that decision, and the case was filed in Chamber V of the Criminal and Correctional Court, where now Judge Ignacio Rodríguez Varela must define whether he confirms the transfer or keeps the case in the ordinary jurisdiction. Meanwhile, during the judicial recess, silent but relevant movements occurred. Tapia and Toviggino appointed lawyer Alejandro Higa as their defender, the same attorney who in 2024 promoted a precautionary measure to halt the application of DNU 70/23 in the chapter that enabled clubs to transform into sports anonymous societies (SAD). The decision could redefine the entire map of cases known as AFA Gate. The central case originated from the complaint filed by businessman Guillermo Tofoni, who accused the president of the AFA, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, the treasurer Pablo Toviggino, and the businessman Javier Faroni, along with his wife Erica Gillette, for the crimes of fraudulent administration and illicit association. In the coming hours, the Criminal and Correctional Court must resolve a high-impact institutional dispute: define whether the bank evidence obtained in the United States, which reveals alleged multimillion-dollar fraud and embezzlement schemes, remains in the ordinary criminal jurisdiction or is absorbed by the federal justice system. In that proceeding, the leaders declared the controversial address of Mercedes 1366, in Pilar, as their legal domicile, a property questioned by the General Inspection of Justice (IGJ). The Revenue and Customs Control Agency (ARCA) has already announced it will challenge that address after verifying that the place only has a sign announcing a future “social headquarters and museum of world champions”. In parallel, Judge Armella advanced with patrimonial measures against Faroni, Gillette, and the alleged straw men used to set up the societies in Florida. However, just one day later, prosecutor Silvana Russi pushed for the case to be transferred to Federal Court No. 2 in Lomas de Zamora, under Judge Luis Armella, arguing the need for an integral investigation that avoids parallel and overlapping cases. That proposal coincided with a series of high-impact raids. Armella ordered procedures at Faroni's home in Nordelta, following a notable episode at Aeroparque, where the businessman attempted to board a private flight to Punta del Este and managed to discard his cell phone an instant before being intercepted by the Airport Security Police (PSA). If the evidence is fragmented and migrates from court to court, the risk of diluting the investigation is once again on the table. Sources: La Nación; judicial records from criminal and federal courts; judicial sources; corporate and bank records from the United States. Buenos Aires, February 1, 2026 – Total News Agency-TNA – The judicial plot surrounding the top leaders of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) is going through a decisive stage after the January judicial recess. There, over 3,000 pages of bank records corresponding to TourProdEnter, Faroni's company, obtained through discovery proceedings in US courts, were incorporated. The documentation revealed that TourProdEnter collected more than 260 million dollars in the last four years and that at least 42 million dollars were channeled to four societies constituted in the state of Florida—Soagu Services LLC, Marmasch LLC, Velp LLC, and Velpasalt LLC—without employees or declared commercial activity, a typical screen company scheme under judicial analysis. Tofoni's complaint was filed strategically in the ordinary criminal jurisdiction, avoiding the federal one, where the businessman had previously suffered setbacks. In turn, Judge Adrián González Charváin, in Campana, is attentively observing the Chamber's decision: in his court, he is handling the case of the Pilar mansion attributed to Toviggino, an investigation that the leadership's lawyers seek to turn into the mother file that absorbs all sensitive cases, including the international chapter. The resolution of Chamber V thus appears as a turning point. Despite the analysis of security cameras, it was not possible to determine if Faroni had prior information about the operation. That same day, Justice raided the AFA headquarters on Viamonte Street, where the contract between the entity and TourProdEnter was seized. If the evidence remains unified, the scaffolding of AFA Gate could consolidate.
