President of the AFIP tax agency Ricardo Echegaray has revealed that the US Securities Exchange Commission has been informed of the vulture fund shareholders active in satellite company DirecTV, while confirming that a formal accusation against those indited in the FIFA scandal would be made imminently.
The official stated that he had send «a note to the SEC to inform the body that the vulture funds form part of the investments that are carried out through the companies [DirecTV] that participate in this type of maneuver.» The US agency is responsible for overseeing stocks and financial activity in the country, where DirecTV is registered as a company.
The principal partner of Torneos, the production company whose CEO Alejandro Burzaco is wanted by Interpol on bribery allegations, is the Latin American subsidiary of DirecTV – in which several associates of hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, the head of NML Capital, appear as shareholders. The company’s headquarters are located in the state of Delaware, known for being one of the largest tax havens in the world. The Clarín Group also houses several enterprises in the area, which even share an address with the aforementioned Singer.
«We have detected cases of vultures that have invested in DirecTV, in Torneos y Competencias. There is a case open in the US which reports income that is not declared here,» Echegaray explained.
«That is why we have widened our complaint because there are undeclared funds. Last year we received from French tax authorities a list of accounts in the Geneva branch of HSBC and now in UK media there are reports that one of the banks that helped move the funds that came out of Switzerland to the US to pay alleged FIFA bribes was HSBC itself… although we do not have Torneos and DirecTV accounts declared at the time the list of 4,040 evaders was made, we will be asking tomorrow before the court that the information is updated as soon as possible.»
The AFIP head additionally confirmed that «between tomorrow and the following day» a formal complaint would be made against more protagonists in FIFAgate. «Today we were preparing a new presentation,» he explained, underlining the revenue agency’s determination to discover whether Burzaco, Hugo and Mariano Jinkis held funds which were not declared to the authorities.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald