Why The FBI Is Investigating Argentine Football

A Florida company run by a theater producer's wife handled $260 million in sponsorship cash for Argentine football. Tens of millions of it went somewhere nobody can explain.

Jul 15, 2026

If you’re following the World Cup as much as I have there’s a chance that you heard about the mess that Argentina’s football governing body (AFA) has been in for months.

Recently, The Miami Herald and Argentinian newspapers confirmed that the FBI was investigating the matter.

Apparently, as Argentina struggled to beat the magnificent and tiny Cape Verde, U.S. authorities were on a video call with Guillermo Tofoni, AFA’s longtime international match promoter until the parties had a falling out in 2021.

They were likely asking him about the man who took over after.

Argentina’s football team has been beating every single one of its opponents for over a month now and and today they might reach the World Cup final for the seventh time in the country’s history.

At the same time, U.S. authorities have been examining an alleged money laundering scheme involving the Argentinian Football Association (AFA), its president, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, and the association’s foreign agent.

Last December, Argentinian police raided AFA’s headquarters as part of a money laundering investigation initiated by the local tax agency. Authorities claim that the association’s biggest sponsors, Sur Finanzas, evaded billions of pesos in taxes. Local media says Tapia paved the way for Sur Finanzas to become the primary sponsor of AFA tournaments.

Weeks later, U.S. bank records obtained by sports promoter Guillermo Tofoni for a separate contract lawsuit against AFA revealed another strand. It showed AFA-related revenue handled by its commercial agent, TourProdEnter, whose Florida filings name Faroni’s wife, Erica Gillette, as manager and whose later bank records reportedly identify Faroni as an owner and signatory.

TourProdEnter transferred almost $57 million to about ten Miami companies described as having no verifiable operations, according to reports. The companies were registered under different managers but several shared addresses, agents or administrative infrastructure. Some listed managers denied knowing about the transfer to local media.

Reporters also identified roughly $8 million invoiced to AFA by five now-inactive Miami firms, with at least part of that route reportedly passing through TourProdEnter.

Now, FBI agents and federal prosecutors in Miami and Washington are reportedly examining TourProdEnter’s transactions.

There are a lot of entities, people and money involved. So, we decided to take a look and break it all down for you: