the argentine government investigate the Uruguayan unicorn dLocalthe only company from the neighboring country listed on Wall Street, under suspicion that it carried out “Improper maneuvers in the exchange market and transfers abroad with the purpose of fleeing foreign currency” from Argentina. In this process of verifying whether there were participating exchange fraud maneuvers Customs, the Central Bank, the Secretary of Commerce, the AFIP and the Financial Crimes Unit (UIF).
The investigation that points to the Uruguayan fintech, which has a market valuation of the order of US$ 4,000 million, already had a significant impact on the price of dLocal on Wall Street, which this Friday suffered a drastic drop of 34%, precisely due to because of the news from Argentina..
It is worth noting that dLocal is a company that operates as payment platform for various operatorsbut the Argentine investigation considers that “It has acted as a mere instrument to take advantage of the exchange rate gap and take dollars abroad with operations that are not reflected in the accounting.”
Those maneuvers, a judgment of the investigators, have been with “the purpose of fleeing currency”, and some figures, without official confirmation, indicate a sum that would be around 400 million dollars.
According to the Argentine government, the Uruguayan company “receives invoices from abroad from its parent company, issues B invoices to foreign clients to justify income, and invoices companies in the same group.” By making this type of invoice “it avoids having to liquidate foreign currency from this export of services.”
Sources of Customsthe control body commanded by Guillermo Michel, noting that they will evaluate notifying the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the strict Wall Street regulator, of the alleged fraud, move that would be made through the United States embassy in Buenos Aires. It was this transcendence that operated in the strong stock market fall of the Uruguayan unicorn.
The Argentine authorities will also seek to obtain information via FinCEN, the Financial Crime Control Network of the US Treasury, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), to establish the effective beneficiaries of these transfers from Argentina and determine the route of the money that left the country.
What do they say from dLocal
One of the founders of dLocal, sergio fogelassured in statements to Portal Montevideo what to play The Observer que “There is no open case, we check with the lawyers and there is nothing in the official records.”
“We are an audited company that is looked at under a microscope. If there is an investigation, we will collaborate, but today there is none. We found out from the press, but we are working and operating normally and we will continue like this,” Fogel said.
The company dLocal is based in maltand according to the Argentine Government “its activity is full of intercompany operations”, that is, it sells services to itself. “98% of its income comes from services provided to dLocal Corp. LLP and dLocal LTD. Currency transfers are mainly to Malta and Great Britain and the main beneficiaries are dLocal Corp. LLP, dLocal Limited and dlocal LLP”, is explained.
The AFIP sent a request on May 19 to the address of dLocal Argentina SA, located in Thames at 1600, in Palermo Soho. In this requirement, the company was required to provide details of the requests for transfers abroad for the importation of services provided in 2022 (date, amount, recipient, country) and documentation that proves them (invoices and contracts with recipients).
dLocal is dedicated to providing cross-border payments connecting global merchants to emerging markets and has offices in Montevideo, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, London and Tel Aviv, among other cities (in addition to the dubious Buenos Aires office). It offers global electronic payment services and claims to have clients such as Zara, Amazon, Nike, Dropbox, Booking and Tripadvisor, among many others.
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