Information was sought from “trout” companies that transferred dollars abroad at official value to later resell them on the blue market.
By iProfessional
09/05/2023 – 13,15hs
The Customs-AFIP -plaintiff in the criminal case of aggravated smuggling, evasion and asset laundering-, with the collaboration of the National Gendarmerie, carried out simultaneous raids in 20 financial institutions to obtain information and documentation related to the irregular foreign trade operationspurchases, sales and currency transfers made by 46 companies and 13 individuals involved in the operation.
The investigated maneuver is the well-known “financial loop”, where companies -without economic substance and falsifying documentation- made transfers to LLC companies incorporated in the state of Florida (USA) to get dollars at the official value and then sell them on the blue market.
In the file it investigate 233 transfers abroad for about $5.3 million, an average of $22,500 per spin to try to go “under the radar.”
The concepts used were “B05 – Advance payments for imports of goods” and “B06 – Deferred payments for imports of goods” and They justified themselves with false imports of computers and TV screens. Couriers were even used with trout invoices.
The criminal case is filed in the Economic Criminal Court no. 2, by Pablo Yadarola, and the Criminal and Economic Prosecutor No. 2, Emilio Gerberoff. The case is processed under summary secrecy.
Among the 46 legal entities, in addition to the four false import companies that made transfers abroad, real estate and investment companies that were used to launder the profits of the financial loop.
Customs, in charge of Guillermo Michel, is the one who made the complaint
Investigate “dollar curl” with false imports
The prosecutor’s office requested a series of precautionary measures to ensure the registrable assets, bank accounts and financial assets, such as the preventive seizure of the accounts and the general inhibition of assets of those involved.
As plaintiff in the criminal case, and just as he did in the NRG case, Customs active the use of information exchange agreements with the US to obtain the names of the legal representatives of the bank accounts of LLC companies in that country.
“From Customs we understand that the controls that the banks’ COMEX account executives should have carried out should have been more rigorous and as plaintiffs in the case we are going to ask to investigate each of the folders that the companies presented to the banks to request transfer abroad, the exchange of calls from each branch manager and the assets of the employees of the banks that participated in the operations,” said Guillermo MichelGeneral Director of Customs, who added: “Currently, the Single Current Account for Foreign Trade that SIRA incorporated has brought order to foreign trade and allows state agencies to control money transfers abroad in real time, giving it greater traceability to the operation.”
Finally, Michel pointed out that from Customs Similar maneuvers are being analyzed for US$700 millionwhich do not have the support of foreign trade operations.
