Argentine court keeps asset freezes on Ariel Vallejos and Sur Finanzas accounts, wallets, and property

Argentina’s federal court has kept the precautionary measures on financista Ariel Vallejos and his company Sur Finanzas in a money laundering and criminal association case tied to football. For PSPs and high-risk merchants, the practical point is simple: once a court freezes bank accounts and virtual wallets, operating cash flow becomes a legal issue, not just an accounting one.

1. The federal judiciary maintained the general freeze on Vallejos’s assets and the immobilization of Sur Finanzas’s bank accounts and virtual wallets. The measures were imposed in a case involving alleged money laundering and criminal association in football.
2. Judicial sources told Clarín that Vallejos had asked for the restrictions to be lifted so the company could keep operating, including paying salaries and suppliers. The court rejected that request, saying there was a risk the funds could be used for other purposes and that the assets need to remain available in case of a criminal conviction.
3. Vallejos is accused of being the head of a criminal association and of laundering money through the irregular handling of company funds linked to football clubs. He entered that business through Claudio "Chiqui" Tapia, president of the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA). Sur Finanzas sponsored clubs, lent money to several of them, and even lent its name to the Argentine league.
4. Sur Finanzas was raided several times, as were the AFA and around twenty clubs that signed sponsorship and loan agreements with it. Vallejos was summoned to give a statement alongside 12 other people and appeared in late May, saying: "Soy inocente. No lavé dinero ni hice ninguna intermediación financiera."
5. At the end of March, the federal court in Lomas de Zamora ordered the general freeze of Vallejos’s and Sur Finanzas’s assets, accounts, and virtual wallets. Among the frozen assets are 10 vehicles, including a Mercedes Benz, an Alfa Romeo, and a BMW. After five months, the defense asked for the measure to be lifted, arguing that it hurts the company’s ability to pay salaries, suppliers, and meet contracts, but federal prosecutor Cecilia Incardona opposed the request.

Judge Luis Armella sided with the prosecution in a ruling issued at the beginning of the month, before leaving Federal Court No. 2 in Lomas de Zamora, where Juan Tomás Rodríguez Ponte took over two weeks ago. He noted that the case involves a complex criminal organization with divided roles and that allowing Vallejos and Sur Finanzas access to their assets again could let the alleged scheme repeat itself.