Luxury jets, yachts and Miami shell firms: FBI probes Argentina soccer funds

The Argentina soccer team’s recent successes and Lionel Messi’s global popularity have led to an avalanche of brand deals, sponsorship offers and invites to play international friendlies for the Argentine Football Association, the country’s soccer federation.

But as the storied team competes for its fourth World Cup title this year, there’s a dark cloud hanging over its finances.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation for potential fraud and money laundering of tens of millions of dollars involving AFA’s revenues through South Florida, sources with knowledge of the matter told the Miami Herald last week.

A network of Miami firms that received millions of dollars, despite appearing to lack clear business justification, plays a central role in the activities under scrutiny. The firms are likely shell companies — they have few or no employees and no apparent business activity, and some operate out of “virtual offices” with no physical presence.

Federal investigators are probing whether the fund transfers ultimately went to top AFA leaders and their allies for personal use, the Herald has learned. The mysterious movements of money are the subject of at least one criminal proceeding in Argentina, according to court records filed in Georgia.

The revelations come as AFA’s president, Claudio Tapia, and the soccer body’s treasurer, Pablo Toviggino, are already under investigation in Argentina surrounding separate allegations that they misused AFA’s Social Security contributions. An Argentine judge presiding over that case has imposed a travel ban on the two executives but has allowed Tapia to travel with the country’s World Cup squad. They have denied any wrongdoing.

The Herald’s reporting is based on interviews with law enforcement officials, court filings, and business and corporate records. The transactions the Herald has reviewed are likely not exhaustive and offer only a glimpse into the complex financial movements of AFA funds that took place from late 2021 through 2025.

AFA did not respond to the Herald’s multiple requests for comment. The soccer body has not publicly addressed any of the allegations.

The money trail

A month after Argentina won the Copa America in July 2021, Javier Faroni, an Argentine theater producer with no known experience of sports management, incorporated a Florida company called TourProdEnter, LLC.

The firm, operating until recently out of an office in Aventura, became, in December 2021, the AFA’s commercial agent to arrange and collect revenue from international deals.

At least $290 million was deposited in its accounts at various financial institutions in the United States, including Bank of America, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase, a Herald analysis of banking records found.

The deposits reviewed by the Herald were made between November 2022 and August 2025.

Much of it was from broadcast deals, brand sponsorships and match profits.

The revenues are typically then distributed throughout the country’s soccer system from clubs to academies and also used to pay the national squad and operations of AFA.

But TourProdEnter made a series of unusual payments totaling at least $40 million to other Miami companies, according to the records. Those payments are now being probed by the FBI.

Nearly $30 million went to six firms — Mafer Trading, LLC; Marmasch, LLC; Soagu Services, LLC; Velp, LLC; W Trading, LLC; and Tronador Import & Export, LLC — that list as their address a discreet two-story commercial building on Ives Dairy Road, southeast of Miami Gardens.

But in reality, they have no physical location. The Ives Dairy Road building offers “virtual offices” for $80 a month. The companies are relatively new; five of the six were registered after March 2021. The fifth, W Trading, LLC, was incorporated in late 2018.

TourProdEnter sent a total of roughly $6 million to three other firms — Delker, Inc.; Seriva, Inc.; and Ikane, Inc., the records show. The three companies also list a virtual office address at a building in the city of Doral.

The Herald was not able to find any business activities by the nine companies through publicly available information. The Herald also could not find contact information for any of the executives listed in their corporate documents.

TourProdEnter wired an additional $3.5 million to a Uruguayan firm doing business in Florida — Stufer Corporation. It lists as its sole executive Faroni’s business partner, Teodoro Favergiotti, and shares the same Hallandale Beach mailing address as other companies registered to Faroni and his wife, Erica Gillette.

The bank records seen by the Herald do not contain corresponding memos that describe the purpose of the fund transfers. What the companies did with the funds is also unclear.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were also at times transferred between accounts held by TourProdEnter in different banks within a matter of days, the Herald found.

For instance, the company received $1.4 million in its Bank of America account from another it held at Citibank between April 4, 2024, and April 16, 2024. A week later, it sent $250,000 back to Citibank and another $400,000 to an account it had with JPMorgan Chase.

A few days after that, on May 3, 2024, TourProdEnter sent $1 million from Bank of America to its JPMorgan Chase account and in turn received $250,000 from the same account.

It’s unclear why.

The Herald sent a list of detailed questions to Faroni, Gillette and their attorneys but did not receive any response. The Herald could not find contact information for Favergiotti.

Luxury expenses

There are also inconsistencies in the banking records.

In a 2023 application for a Bank of America credit card, TourProdEnter listed its primary business as “Advertising” but the next year, it was recorded as “Amusement and Recreation Services.” A separate 2023 application to open a business account at Citibank describes the firm as an event producer that also provides logistics and tourism services. None of them mention soccer or the Argentine Football Association.

The Citibank application signed by Gillette in April 2023 states that she is a U.S. citizen. But the Bank of America application four months later states that she is a permanent resident — the official term for holders of green cards.

Banking records show that an account for one of the likely shell companies, Velp, LLC, received nearly $600,000 from TourProdEnter after the state of Florida had already dissolved Velp on Sept. 22, 2023, for failure to file its annual reports.

Nearly three dozen wire transfers totaling roughly $3.6 million from TourProdEnter went to companies that offer private luxury jet services, the Herald found, and more than $1 million went to companies that charter luxury yachts in southern Europe. Nearly $85,000 went to a firm that manages thoroughbred horses and more than $130,000 went to a motorsport company.

The Herald also found that at least one of TourProdEnter’s accounts at Bank of America had credit cards issued to both Faroni and Gillette.

Their expenses from that account ranged from gas, groceries and parking fees to vacations in Rome and purchases at Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton stores in Spain, according to the Herald’s review. TourProdEnter also wired $100,000 in January 2023 to a hair products company of a stylist who owns an upscale salon at the Hilton Bentley in South Beach.

Ten fund transfers totaling nearly $300,000 from TourProdEnter went to Gillette and around $75,000 went to Favergiotti, Faroni’s business partner, between 2023 through 2024. María Florencia Sartirana, partner of AFA treasurer Toviggino, also received $40,000 in the same period, the records show.

TourProdEnter’s monetary transactions with U.S.-based companies drew the attention of federal law enforcement, the Herald has learned. No charges have been filed.

Legal experts told the Herald that investigations of these types — spanning numerous companies and multiple countries — typically take years to resolve.