Prosecutor Targets Undeclared Payments
Federal prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita has requested that Judge Ariel Lijo authorize 15 new measures in the investigation into alleged illicit enrichment by Claudio 'Chiqui' Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The probe focuses on Tapia's role as a public official at CEAMSE, the mixed public company that manages waste for the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. Judicial sources told Clarín that the case began a month ago and that initial steps, including lifting Tapia's tax and banking secrecy and requesting reports on his accounts, properties, vehicles, and companies, have already produced responses that prompted the prosecutor to dig deeper.[S1]
One key line of inquiry concerns 37 bank credits totaling 1,494,678.79 pesos that Tapia received in a salary account at Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires between January 2016 and January 2019 from the Truck Drivers Union, led by Hugo Moyano. Pollicita asked the union to provide Tapia's employment file, his positions, pay slips, and details of all payments, including start and end dates. The prosecutor noted that these credits were the only income in that salary account during the period, yet Tapia's sworn declarations listed income only from CEAMSE, CONMEBOL, and AFA.[S1][S2]
FIFA Transfers Under Scrutiny
The prosecutor also requested a letter rogatory to Switzerland so that FIFA, headquartered in Zurich, explains three transfers totaling $189,577.18 that Tapia received in a Banco Credicoop account: $49,585.53 in December 2018, $124,583.56 in June 2019, and $15,408.09 in March 2020, the last liquidated as 985,049.15 pesos. FIFA is asked to detail all payments, fees, per diems, travel expenses, or any other sums paid to Tapia since 2016, specifying the positions or commissions that justified them and the destination accounts. The request stems from foreign trade records identifying the sender as 'FEDERATION INTERNAT.' with origin in Switzerland, and from the fact that Tapia did not declare income from that entity in his sworn statements.[S1][S2]
Ex-Wife and AFA Probed
Investigators are also focusing on Paola Moyano, Tapia's ex-wife and daughter of union leader Hugo Moyano. Banco Credicoop reports show she was added as a signatory to two of Tapia's accounts on February 12, 2019, the same day a $620,000 cash deposit was made and a safe deposit box was opened in both names. She also holds two of Tapia's credit cards. Pollicita asked to lift her tax, banking, and financial secrecy and to request reports from ARCA, the Central Bank, and the Caja de Valores. Additionally, the prosecutor wants to know the status of other cases against Tapia and has requested copies of those files to better assess his wealth.[S1][S2]
The AFA itself is part of the evidence-gathering. Prosecutors want to see the resolutions that authorized Tapia to use credit cards and to understand why the association transferred 1,476,000 pesos to his Banco Credicoop account between 2020 and 2023, plus another 30 million pesos in travel expenses. Tapia was appointed vice president of CEAMSE in 2014 by then-Buenos Aires city mayor Mauricio Macri and remained until 2024, when he became president of the entity under provincial governor Axel Kicillof.[S1]
