Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia is worried. These days he was denounced by the businessman Guillermo Tofoni, historical organizer of the friendly matches of the Argentine National Team. Tofoni appeared in Comodoro Py and said that Tapia, in his role as head of the AFA, had ignored the contracts signed by both and that they replaced him, without notifying him, by another company called ProSport Live, led by a person named Kent Agüero, to organize the two friendlies that Argentina played last March against Panama and Curacao. He also asked to be investigated for possible money laundering. The complaint seeks to prove that Tapia broke a contract, but goes further in seeking to leave him implicated in the crime of money laundering because the payment to the AFA was made in the United States. The only known precedent of Kent Agüero in the country is the organization of an exhibition match between the tennis players André Agassi and Pete Sampras in 2011 in Tigre, when Sergio Massa was mayor of that town.
Antecedent. This is not the only agreement that Tapia broke, who in recent years has added a series of lawsuits for breaching contracts. There is another file that has him as a protagonist together with the Marketing Manager of AFA, Leandro Petersen. The lawsuit was initiated by the company ByBit, a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency wallet. This company had paid 3 million dollars to be the sponsor of the National Team, but ended up appearing in court saying that it transferred the money and the contract was never completed. The details of the complaint are revealing about the handling of Tapia and his Marketing Manager. The transfer of money was not made to Argentina, but to a company in Spain that acts as an intermediary and for which it charges 30% of the operation.
In addition to requesting the return of the 3 million dollars, Bybit also claims that expenses that were linked to the operation be reimbursed, such as audiovisual campaigns with a company called Blue Publicidad. The contract was signed by a former employee of the AFA Marketing area who resigned to set up his own production company. ByBit’s lawyers suspect that the man suggested the hiring because he was a friend of his. The scandal promises to have more repercussions and the magnitude of the blows is still unknown.
Recently there was also controversy over the change in the company that sold the tickets for the national team matches, which ended up favoring the massista businessman Javier Faroni.
The word of “Chiqui” Tapia begins to lose value.
