The investigation into Sur Finanzas’ financial maneuverings added an unexpected twist and sparked a powerful internal investigation into federal judge Lomas de Zamora. Judge Federico Villena filed a criminal complaint against Public Prosecutor Cecilia Incardona, whom he accuses of threats, violations, and trying to manipulate the file so that it does not remain within her jurisdiction.
The judge’s offer only deepens the conflict within the jurisdiction when the case progresses within an economic framework that mixes informal finance, football representatives, leaders and money flows linked to the AFC ecosystem.
DGI-ARCA has indicted Sur Finanzas – owned by Ariel Vallejo, the right-hand man of AFC President Claudio Chique Tapia – on charges of evading 3,300 million pesos in check tax and handling more than 800 billion pesos, part of which are people who do not exist or do not have the economic capacity to do so.
The case was in the custody of Prosecutor Incardona who, after formalizing the accusation, referred the case to a draw so that a judge could be appointed with a series of requests for evidentiary measures.
According to the documents analyzed by investigators, Sur Finanzas could have acted as a payment channel for leaders and operators linked to the sport, with transfers that included: movements of representatives and agents, operations linked to professional clubs, and private payments linked to the football market.
The AFA also appears in this circle, although it has not been formally investigated as an institution. What is analyzed are operations carried out by third parties that transferred or managed funds linked – directly or indirectly – to the official and unofficial activities of Argentine football.
“Forum shopping”
The federal judge of Lomas de Zamora, Federico Villena, condemned the prosecutor of that region, Cecilia Incardona, for possible “tampering with the case” in the election of the judge who was scheduled to intervene in the national government’s complaint against Ariel Vallejo, the president of Sur Finanzas and a confidant of the president of the Argentine Football Federation, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, on charges of tax evasion and money laundering.
The Public Prosecutor considered that the case should be brought to Federal Court No. 2, responsible for Luis Armilla, because another complaint against Vallejo and the Banfield club had been processed there since the middle of the year. He took it to the natural judge, drawn by lot, Federico Villena himself.