The Customs and the General Tax Directorate (DGI) analyzed exports of More than 100 companies created in the years 2020/2021 and detected new exporters of cracked corn, deactivated soybeans and blended oils, characterized by the exponential increase in exported values.
Specifically, attention was drawn to the disproportionate relationship between exports and the economic and financial capacity of companies, which these companies showed. common points:
- They all show a similar financial pattern, registering an exponential increase in their export volumes in a very short time.
- The most commonly used position is Cracked Corn (PA 1104.2300.0000), characterized by being outside the official price system.
- None of the operators analysed has the financial or operational capacity to match the volumes exported.
- In all cases, customs procedures are the responsibility of a single firm of customs agents.
- A high percentage of destinations are registered at the same customs office, Campana, repeating the export circuit in almost all cases.
- The amount of foreign currency settled is systematically very low in relation to the amounts exported.
- In some cases, the existence of a link between foreign buyers and exporters is verified.
- Following the analysis by the AFIP-DGI, many of the companies analyzed are included in the Database of Apocryphal Firms (APOC database), under the classification of credit factories without solvency.
In that framework, Customs-AFIP filed a complaint that is being investigated by the Federal Judge of Campana, Adrián González Charvay, who ordered more than eighty simultaneous raids throughout the country, where cell phones, PCs, hard drives, documentation and two firearms (one without its corresponding documentation) were seized. The Federal Police, in turn, collaborated in the raids and also worked on the investigation.
The dollars were not entered into the Central Bank
The maneuver is evident: about 15 companies trout With USD 51 million in exports—whose settlement deadline has expired—only USD 3 million entered the country. 94% of what was exported was not entered into the Central Bank.
“Customs is responsible for ensuring that all exporters operate on equal terms, avoiding irregular maneuvers that affect the Central Bank's reserves. Dollars are for Argentine production and work, not for financial speculation,” said the Director General of Customs, Guillermo Michel.
Other actions
Regarding the more than 40 suspected companies, DGI proceeded to suspend their CUIT, while Customs issued a report of suspicious money laundering operation before the UIF.
The criminal case
The Federal Court of Campana investigates the possible existence of an illicit association contemplated in Art. 210 of the Penal Code, and/or crimes classified in the Tax Penal Regime (Law 27.430) and/or in the Foreign Exchange Penal Regime (Law 19.359 – TO 1995 Decree No. 480/1995) and the commission of money laundering (Art. 303 inc. 1° of the Penal Code).
Preliminary investigations have shown that exporting companies lack the solvency to undertake foreign trade operations, which shows that behind the entire formal structure there are one or more hidden exporters, whose identity was not revealed by the apparent exporter.
There are sufficient elements of conviction to maintain that the real exporter —that is, the real owner of the merchandise— would have been replaced by fictitious companies or screen. This substitution, which is evident based on the objective data obtained - economic inability to undertake the operations - constitutes an action tending to prevent or, at least, hinder, through underhanded methods, the adequate control of the Customs Service over the international traffic of goods.
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