Argentine Navy suspends nine military personnel over 1.6 billion pesos payroll fraud
The Argentine Navy preventively suspended eight corvette captains and one petty officer involved in a payroll and travel allowance fraud scheme.
Nine military personnel suspended following fraud allegations in Argentine Navy
The Argentine Navy preventively suspended nine military personnel involved in a suspected fraud scheme in the processing of salaries and travel allowances, according to pagina12.com.ar. The estimated loss amounts to approximately 1.6 billion pesos and the investigation implicates 23 people in total, including military personnel and civilians.
Admiral Juan Carlos Romay, head of the Navy, ordered the suspension of eight corvette captains and one petty officer, who will be subject to the Armed Forces Disciplinary Code. The measure is precautionary and will remain in effect until the eventual disciplinary responsibility of those involved is determined.
Fraud mechanisms: forged receipts and false travel allowances
The fraudulent operations allegedly took place between July 2022 and January 2026. An internal investigation initially estimated a loss of 938 million pesos, a figure that naval sources later increased to 1.6 billion. The scheme consisted of adulterating payroll receipts and including false travel allowances for trips abroad: in some cases, amounts were paid in foreign currency for missions that were never carried out; in others, payments continued after commissions had ended.
The investigation also examines the use of CUIL numbers (taxpayer identification numbers) of retired or discharged personnel to carry out "phantom payments". Another detected mechanism involved so-called "supplements with return": allowances were processed for overtime or specialities such as diving for people who did not perform those tasks, and those who received payment were subsequently required to return 50 per cent of the money received.
Head of the Payroll Department and his wife at the centre of the case
Among those suspended is Navy Captain Ariel Baltasar Atanasoff, head of the Navy's Payroll Department. His wife, María del Carmen Prieto, appears as beneficiary of 46 deposits to her bank account, totalling 152.2 million pesos.
The complaint was filed with Federal Criminal and Correctional Court No. 2 and includes three people with no connection to the Navy: Andrés Santana, who received 99.4 million pesos; Amalia Cristina Díaz, who received 91.9 million; and Natalia Carolina Yahia, with 90.4 million pesos deposited.
A female officer detected the irregularities and allegedly received an offer for her silence
The investigation includes a significant episode: a Navy lieutenant allegedly detected the discrepancies and, according to reports from the Libertad building—the Navy's headquarters—allegedly received an offer of money to refrain from reporting the fraud to her superiors.
The force under the Ministry of Defence stated that administrative proceedings were initiated upon detection of "inconsistencies in salary deposits". In its statement, the Navy referred to its "zero-tolerance policy towards any situation of fraud, corruption, irregularity or conduct contrary to the ethics and values that govern the Institution". The criminal complaint is proceeding through the courts and the internal investigation remains open.
Source: Google News AR — Crime