Justice will summon the new director of the DGI Mariano Mengochea to courts to deepen the investigation into the companies that are being targeted because they would be alleged front men of the authorities of the Argentine Football Association (AFA).
The decision was made by the economic criminal judge Marcelo Aguinsky after receiving a very extensive opinion from the prosecutor Claudio Navas Rial in which it suggests carrying out a battery of test measures related to companies that would be linked to Pablo Tovigginotreasurer of the AFA and right hand of Claudio “Chiqui” Tapiahead of the organization.
Judge Aguinsky’s case analyzes matters related to the companies that are and were owners of the five-hectare mansion in Villa Rosa, Pilar, where there is an equestrian track, sports facilities, a heliport and a warehouse was found with 54 high-end and classic cars, as well as motorcycles.
That property is in the name of the company Real Central SRL and before it was in the name of Malte SRL and Central Park Drinks.
Real Central SRL is owned by Luciano Pantano and his mother Ana Conte. Both do not have the economic profile to have that property.
Swampdirector of a futsal association linked to the AFA, held a position in the treasury of the Almirante Brown Club, is monotributist and at the time of the complaint he had a bank debt of just over $2,000,000, according to the case.
Conte es retired and self-employed worker. During the pandemic he collected the Emergency Family Income (IFE) granted by Anses.
By the company Malte SRL appeared as responsible Maurio Javier Paz, director of a women’s football association, associated with the AFA.
Last week Aguinsky decreed the secrecy of the summary and raided an accounting firm in Lomas de Zamora in search of the work papers of those companies.
However, the accountant used those offices virtually and did not leave the signature documents there. These materials are on your computer and in the DGI bases. Now, the judge continues following in the footsteps of that information.
In parallel, he investigates the notary who incorporated those companies, to determine who signed the documents when the corporate transfers between Central Park Drinks and Real Central took place. There was also an addition of money to the social capital.
One of the operations being investigated is the purchase of that villa. It was sold by Malte SRL and acquired by Real Central for $1.8 million.
Malte SRL, the seller, has the same address as Pablo Toviggino’s HT company in Santiago del Estero. And the vehicles found in the farm have blue ID cards that authorize Toviggino’s relatives to drive them.
Now Aguinsky is preparing to launch this Friday, with the resumption of judicial activity, a series of test measures and summoned the head of the DGI to speed up their implementation. And the court is analyzing working during the summer judicial fair, given the number of pending measures.
It was precisely the opinion of the prosecutor Claudio Navas Rial the one that motivated the call to the brand new head of the DGI.
Justice suspects that Pantano, Conte and eventually Paz are actually alleged figureheads of AFA authorities that would be behind the property.
Conte and Pantano are scheduled for December 29 to give explanations before Judge Aguinsky, hence the judge’s urgency to secure the evidence as soon as possible.
Investigators of the case explained to THE NATION the hypotheses that are being considered, in light of the evidence that was appearing.
In principle, they explained that in this case the revelations occurred in the opposite way as in any criminal investigation: in general, a criminal organization is first detected, which commits crimes and then needs to launder the money from these crimes through operations of purchase and sale of properties, for example, with intermediaries.
However, in this case, the tip of the iceberg that emerged before the researchers, when the Civic Coalition raised a complaint, was the appearance of stunning assets, farms, luxury cars and properties in the hands of people who do not have the economic profile or income to have them.
It was a tweet from Carlos Tevez, on March 5, 2024, that put the leaders of Elisa Carrió on the trail of that Villa Rosa farm: “It seems to me that so many comings and goings to Pilar are making you lose a little bit Toviggino. Apart from the collection of old and imported cars that you accumulated in Pilar, also bury the bags that you brought from Qatar and from the friendlies in China, memory Ali Baba.”
Tevez’s message was linked to a Toviggino chicane at X, where he tends to be particularly sharp. There Tevez complained about 2-2 for Independiente, the club he coached, against Barracas Central. He had accused the referee Pablo Dovalo to harm them.
Toviggino responded in X: “Since you were not so studious in the DT course, there are surely things that you find confusing. Strange of you, while playing you committed jail fouls and they only ended in yellow cards. I also didn’t listen to you in some previous games, which I reserve. Anyway, wind memory.” And Tevez responded with “the bags from Qatar”, “the friendlies in China”, the luxury cars and the “memory of Ali Baba”.
That message seemed to be corroborated after the raids in Villa Rosa, where the classic cars and modern high-end. No one has started digging yet.
Carrió, together with the president of the Pilar Civic Coalition, Matias Yofeand the Buenos Aires legislator Facundo del Gaisopresented to the Procelac and justice the complaint against Luciano Nicolás Pantano and Ana Lucía Conte for alleged money laundering.
Now investigators are pulling the thread back on the maneuver, looking for the preceding crime that in any case allowed this enrichment for which no taxes were paid and the eventual money laundering.
According to judicial sources, THE NATIONthe hypotheses that investigators use about how the AFA leaders could have gotten hold of that money are, for example:
– Those that Tevez contributed when he spoke of “the Qatar bags and the friendlies in China.”
– The acquisition of dollars in the official market at a lower value, when the stocks were in effect, to cancel supposed services contracted in the United States, but which were actually exchanged in Argentina on the black market.
– Alleged clandestine flights of small planes that depart from Bolivia, fly over Santiago del Estero and land on clandestine runways or drop drug shipments.
– Usurpations of large areas in Santiago del Estero, which allowed AFA authorities to take over thousands of hectares.
The hypotheses, for now only in the field of assumptions, arise from complaints that were processed in the federal justice system in Santiago del Estero, Campana and Catamarca, without any formal prosecution or accusation.
