New Argentine revenue head found to keep nearly all assets overseas
The newly-appointed director of Argentina's Federal Public Revenue Agency (AFIP), Leandro Cuccioli, was revealed to have at least 94% of his personal wealth overseas, according to public documents.
Financial disclosures filed while working under President Mauricio Macri's chief of staff show that Cuccioli's assets include real estate in London and Uruguay, U.S. mutual fund and savings accounts, as well as shares in two Cayman Islands investment funds and a Bermuda-domiciled firm.
Out of a total of $320,000 in declared net assets as of the end of last year, all but $25,000 were overseas - an unprecedented situation for an Argentine revenue head since financial disclosure statements became mandatory for all Argentine public officials in 1999.
Critics note Cuccioli may have dramatically understated some assets as well: An 170 m² (1830 ft²) apartment in London, of which Cuccioli stated having 50% ownership, was listed as being worth around $320,000 - an implausible figure in a city where median home prices currently exceed $600 per square foot.
Cuccioli, 40, replaced Alberto Abad, who was reportedly forced out after firing the brother-in-law of a top Macri associate, Boca Juniors football club head Daniel Angelici.
Abad had been under pressure to resign since an AFIP leak last August revealed that relatives and close associates of Macri's used a 2016 tax amnesty program to "whitewash" a total of at least $132 million in undeclared offshore funds.
Argentine law forbids the use of tax amnesty benefits by family or close associates of sitting federal officials.
Numerous officials in the right-wing Macri administration - including the president - have been listed in the Panama and Paradise Papers offshoring scandals.
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Argentina's new revenue head Leandro Cuccioli.
