ALBAWABA - €42 million (around $48 million) out of €300 million ($342 million) of Argentina’s prize money went to shell companies in Florida that were registered just nine days before Argentina’s win, bringing the Argentine Football Federation under federal U.S. money laundering investigations.
The case started on December 30th 2025; a complaint was filed with the US Attorney’s Office alleging that the Argentine football federation diverted €42 million of its prize money through a network of shell companies - with no employees or business activities - that were registered in Florida nine days before the team’s win.
The main company at the center of the investigations is TourProdEnter LLC, a U.S. company that holds exclusive commercial rights to the Argentine Football Association (AFA).
After an investigation by Argentina’s La Nacion paper, the company was found to have accumulated upwards of $260 million across four U.S. bank accounts - with $42 million of these allegedly passing through four shell companies before disappearing from the books.
Javier Faroni, an Argentinian lawmaker whose wife registered TourProdEnter LLC, was stopped by police at the border, trying to enter Paraguay after the Argentine government cracked down on corruption. The AFA labelled the investigations and subsequent crackdowns as a defamation campaign against it.
The man behind the AFA, Claudio Tapia, is seen as the mastermind behind the entire scheme. 54 luxury vehicles were found and seized at a 10-hectare mansion in Pilar suspected to be owned by him.
And as the AFA is under active federal investigation for money laundering, with its headquarters raided, its training ground searched, and its president’s banking secrecy lifted by court order, it's participating in the World Cup, and FIFA remains silent.
Many are now wondering how deeply FIFA is embedded in this corruption scheme, alongside allegations of fixing World Cup matches in Argentina’s favor, allegations which were heard louder after the Egypt-Argentina match where Egypt had a goal revoked, and Argentina scored three goals in 12 minutes.
