The judicial investigation into the financial company Sur Finance took a high-impact turn this Thursday with the in-flagranti detention of the firm's treasurer, identified as Micaela Sánchez. She was caught while attempting to remove boxes, cell phones, and documentation from a clandestine warehouse in Turdera, in the Lomas de Zamora district, amid a case already surrounded by suspicions of money laundering and tax evasion linked to the nexus between the firm, football clubs, and the Argentine Football Association (AFA).
This case also involves monotributistas (simplified tax regime payers) without financial capacity, fictitious taxpayers, and high-volume financial movements that caught the attention of tax and criminal investigation teams. The role of Sur Finance as a sponsor of tournaments and clubs—with the company's logo on uniforms and commercial agreements with First Division and Ascension teams—and its connection with football leaders and financial operators raises questions about the use of the firm as a tool to legitimize capital of dubious origin.
A neighbor's complaint triggered the first raid on the warehouse, where agents of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) found Sánchez loading boxes into a Toyota SW4 vehicle. After a brief escape, she was detained about 100 meters from the scene.
The progression of the raids and the detention of Treasurer Sánchez, amidst the hasty movement of boxes and electronic devices, evidences the complexity of the plot and the possibility of multiple lines of criminal activity that must be clarified in court. Judge Armella continues to supervise the procedures, while the prosecutor's office and the Federal Police work to classify the seized elements to consolidate the case and prepare future indictments, in a case that could redefine the financial reality of Argentine football and the private figures at the center of its recent economic ties.
The investigation aims to determine if the financier—owned by businessman Ariel Vallejo, closely linked to the president of the AFA, Claudio 'Chiqui' Tapia—operated as a channel to insert illicit funds into the legal system of Argentine football.
The main case, driven by federal prosecutor Cecilia Incardona, also led to the opening of multiple procedures against companies linked to the financier, including private homes and administrative offices in the Federal Capital and the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.
Judicial sources confirmed that federal judge Luis Armella ordered the search of Sánchez's home and ordered her to be remanded in custody tomorrow, within the framework of the multiple operations that have been underway since the beginning of December.
The case accelerated after an anonymous call warned the Prosecutor's Office about suspicious movements of vans with the Sur Finance logo moving boxes to a warehouse located on Hipólito Yrigoyen Avenue, next to a car wash.
Among the operations, an order was given to open the bank safe deposit boxes of Sur Finance and to register companies that, according to the Justice, would be part of the corporate structure used to move funds suspected of tax evasion and money laundering.
In the first raid on the warehouse, investigators found two large safe deposit boxes, seven additional safes, POS terminals, vehicle documentation, two computers, and medical equipment, as well as around 30 boxes with diverse documentation and five complete ATMs, which showed the magnitude of the material scattered outside the formal records of the financier itself.
In response, additional raids were ordered at the home of Sánchez's mother, where computers and keys to safes under guard were found, and the search for evidence that allows clarifying the destination and real activity of the seized items continues.
The case, which began with previous investigations for alleged irregularities in the transfer of funds between the financier and Club Atlético Banfield, expanded after a complaint from the General Taxation Directorate (DGI) for alleged money laundering and tax evasion for an amount close to 818,000 million pesos, related to operations carried out through Sur Finance's payment services platform.
In the vehicle, at least six cell phones, a computer, and abundant documentation were seized, which is now incorporated into the file.
The judicial investigation is taking place in the context of massive operations against Sur Finance and its supposed asset laundering circuit, which had already led to at least 33 simultaneous raids at the AFA headquarters, its facility in Ezeiza, and offices of various football clubs by order of the same magistrate, in an investigation that also reaches Racing, Independiente, San Lorenzo, and Excursionistas, among others.
Judge Armella ordered the opening of these safes with the support of Firefighters, a procedure that extended for several hours and continued during the early morning of Thursday.
Questioned along with other people who accompanied her, Sánchez affirmed that the elements found were being transferred to a 'computer technician' who would work for Sur Finance, a version that was not accepted by the prosecutors or the magistrate, who considered that the movements obeyed an attempt to hide and disperse key documentation for the investigation.
