New AFA Money Laundering Scheme Uncovered in US

United States authorities have detected a new bank account for the firm TourProdEnter, attributed to Javier Faroni and his wife Erica Gillette, where income linked to the AFA from abroad would have been concentrated. This account was opened in May 2024 at PNC Bank, recording movements of over US$13 million, from which more than US$3 million would have been diverted to five societies based in Miami with no known commercial activity. The measure is part of the discovery process underway in the Delaware Court under case file “Case No. 1:25-cv-01217-RGA”, initiated after a filing by the lawyers of businessman Guillermo Tofoni, in which four other accounts in the United States had already been identified. According to the records incorporated into the file, Faroni is listed as the “owner” of the account and Gillette as the “manager”. With the newly detected movements—US$3,171,800 more—the total figure approaches US$55 million and could continue to increase as the judicial process advances. The firm declared its domicile at 8333 NW 53 Street, in Doral, Miami, under the “virtual office” modality. The fifth society detected at PNC Bank is Mafer Trading LLC, which had already received US$1,345,000 from other accounts and now adds another US$252,500. According to the documentation, Mafer Trading was registered by a person identified as Matías E. Fernández, whose initials match the firm’s name (“Ma” for Matías and “Fer” for Fernández), a similar pattern to the one detected in Marmasch, linked to Mariela Marisa Schmalz. In previous records, the firm W Trading also emerged, where Matías Esteban Fernández, 45, appears with a record as a municipal employee in Lanús and registered as a monotributista. To justify the transfers with AFA funds, the company TourProdEnter presents itself as linked to the textile industry. However, the judicial investigation maintains that it would have functioned as a structure to channel and divert AFA funds. The appearance of Mafer Trading completes a network of nine LLCs created at three addresses in Miami, which would have received US$51.4 million corresponding to AFA funds. The three societies linked to that city used Registered Agents Inc, based in Wyoming, as their registered agent and were closed on December 30, two days after the scandal broke. Another of the firms cited is Delker INC, which shows transfers of US$675,000 from the PNC Bank account, in three transfers of US$195,000, US$347,000, and US$133,000. A large part of the funds credited to the PNC Bank came from other TourProdEnter accounts opened at Bank of America, Synovus, Citibank, and JP Morgan. Among the detected outflows are transfers to the firms Soagu, Marmasch, Velpasalt, Delker, and Mafer, all constituted in Miami and cited as “shell” societies. Two of them—Soagu Services and Marmasch—would have previously received US$10.8 million and US$13.4 million, respectively, to which are now added US$764,000 and US$1,107,500 more between June and November 2024. Velpasalt LLC, created by a tour operator from Bariloche, would have received US$14.7 million in previous operations and another US$273,000 in June 2024. To this is added US$3,705,300 sent from other TourProdEnter accounts, which raises the total attributed to US$4,380,300. In addition, Delker received ten transfers from Bank of America, one transfer of US$202,000 from JP Morgan on July 5, 2024, and successive payments from City on April 1, 2, 3, and 4 of that year for US$560,000.