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Argentine Football Association President Claudio Tapia speaks during the unveiling of the new AFA offices in Wynwood on December 7, 2023.<\/p>\n
D.A. Varela<\/p>\n
Miami Herald file<\/p>\n
While Argentina\u2019s storied soccer team has reached the World Cup quarterfinals, federal authorities have been investigating the Argentine Football Association for possible fraud and money laundering stemming from hundreds of millions of dollars in bank transactions linked to the United States, according to two law-enforcement sources familiar with the probe in Washington and Miami.<\/p>\n
The FBI is leading the investigation into the financial operations of the Argentine soccer body, headed by President Claudio Tapia, who was in Miami for the country\u2019s victory over Cape Verde last week. Argentina faces Switzerland in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Kansas City, Missouri.<\/p>\n
La Naci\u00f3n, the Argentine newspaper that broke the story on Wednesday, reported that the FBI is probing how the AFA moved more than $300 million to banks and companies in South Florida and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The Argentine newspaper reported that during the match against Cape Verde, FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors questioned Argentine sports businessman Guillermo Tofoni. The FBI is reportedly seeking evidence about AFA\u2019s operations under Tapia\u2019s leadership and its relationship with TourProdEnter LLC, a South Florida company that handled the association\u2019s overseas commercial agreements.<\/p>\n
The FBI\u2019s questioning of Tofoni reportedly centered on how the AFA structured its international commercial agreements and whether its transactions involving U.S.-based banks and companies might have broken U.S law by concealing potentially illicit funds and their purpose. No charges have been filed in Argentina.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Tapia remains in the United States as Argentina continues its 2026 FIFA World Cup run. Argentine courts gave Tapia permission to travel despite facing charges at home over his alleged mismanagement of tax and Social Security funds totaling more than 19 billion Argentine pesos ($12.7 million). This is unrelated to the AFA investigation in Miami.<\/p>\n
In the United States, no formal charges have been filed in connection with the AFA probe.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the FBI\u2019s Miami field office declined to comment about the probe or its existence.<\/p>\n
In March, the Miami Herald reported on the AFA\u2019s link to several \u201cvirtual offices\u201d in Miami-Dade County. One is for TourProdEnter LLC in Aventura.<\/p>\n
According to confidential banking records and corporate documents reviewed by the Miami Herald, the Aventura-based company is at the center of a sprawling financial network connected to Argentina\u2019s top soccer authority.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Miami shell companies linked to $260 million Argentine soccer scandal<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe are talking about at least $260 million …, and it\u2019s a provisional figure that will grow,\u201d said Nicol\u00e1s Pizzi, who is an investigative journalist for the Argentine newspaper La Naci\u00f3n and broke the original story on the soccer scandal this year. Pizzi spoke with the Herald in March at a Miami forum organized by the Inter-American Institute for Democracy.<\/p>\n The scandal has expanded into an international investigation, placing Miami at the center of a complex web of shell companies, offshore transfers and opaque financial flows that might have deceived U.S. banks about the potentially illicit nature of the funds and how they would be used. At its core lies a familiar pattern: money moving quickly, obscured ownership and oversight struggling to keep pace.<\/p>\n But some of the most revealing details uncovered by La Naci\u00f3n go beyond corporate structures and bank transfers \u2014 and into how the money was allegedly spent.<\/p>\n According to the Argentine newspaper, the AFA paid $340,000 to the family of a so-called \u201cspiritual guide\u201d who traveled with the national team to major tournaments, including the Copa Am\u00e9rica in 2024 and this year\u2019s World Cup. The payments \u2014 17 transfers of $20,000 each \u2014 were made to the son of Jos\u00e9 Almaraz, a former player described as a spiritual guide close to AFA leadership. Almaraz\u2019s role was never formally defined, but he was believed by top officials to bring good luck, and all of his travel expenses were covered.<\/p>\n The same reporting identified additional questionable transfers, including $468,000 sent to a company linked to AFA Treasurer Pablo Toviggino, $40,000 paid to his business partner and $2.3 million routed to a U.S.-registered company tied to an individual with no clear financial profile.<\/p>\n Taken together \u2014 along with $42 million routed through Florida shell companies and at least $16.5 million in luxury spending \u2014 investigators have traced roughly $90 million in potentially irregular uses of funds to date.<\/p>\n Because the transactions involved American banks and Florida-registered entities, the case has drawn the attention of U.S. authorities. Investigators are examining whether any laws were violated, including those related to money laundering or financial disclosure, as cross-border cooperation between U.S. and Argentine agencies continues.<\/p>\n Legal experts caution that cases of this scale \u2014 spanning multiple countries and financial systems \u2014 can take years to resolve.<\/p>\n Jay Weaver writes about federal crime at the crossroads of South Florida and Latin America. Since joining the Miami Herald in 1999, he\u2019s covered the federal courts nonstop, from Elian Gonzalez\u2019s custody battle to Alex Rodriguez\u2019s steroid abuse. He was part of the Herald teams that won the 2001 and 2022 Pulitzer Prizes for breaking news on Elian\u2019s seizure by federal agents and the collapse of a Surfside condo building killing 98 people. He and three Herald colleagues were 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalists for explanatory reporting on gold smuggling between South America and Miami.\n <\/p>\n
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