Lawyer Gregorio Dalbón filed a criminal complaint against Economy Minister Luis Caputo, central bank president Santiago Bausili and central bank board member Juan Curutchet over gold-related operations that Argentina’s National Audit Office says cost US$1.023 billion in 2025. No one has been charged, and the officials named remain presumed innocent.
“1.023 billion dollars is not an accounting entry,” Dalbón wrote, according to La Política Online. “They are the Republic's resources and demand an explanation equal to such a figure.” The complaint became public on Friday 9 October 2026 and went to federal judge Ariel Lijo, with federal prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita taking part.
Who Decided—and Who Knows?
Dalbón asks the court to establish who decided, authorized and designed the operations, which counterparties took part, what risks officials accepted, what controls existed and whether the state lost money. Neither the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) nor the National Audit Office has publicly named the counterparties behind the gold operations.
The National Audit Office (Auditoría General de la Nación, AGN), Congress's public-sector auditor, reviewed the central bank's 2025 financial statements. It found that derivatives settled in dollars and backed by some of the bank's physical gold lost US$960.2 million, while option premiums cost another US$62.8 million. Together, those losses reached US$1.023 billion.
AGN president Juan Manuel Olmos said the central bank “erred in the calculation” and that no loss of that size had appeared since the AGN began auditing the bank, Perfil reported. La Política Online reported that the auditor backed the procedure behind the gold operations, but not their result. Perfil reported that a separate AGN audit of the physical gold and its transfer abroad remained under way.
The Bank's Counterclaim
The BCRA rejected the auditor's interpretation on Thursday 8 October. It said its gold and hedges together produced a net gain of US$2.505 billion in 2025. But the bank hasn't explained how it arrived at that figure.
The BCRA said it has hedged 100% of its gold against a sharp fall in price since 2007. When gold rises, as it did in 2025, the bank said, the insurance loses money while the metal gains. The BCRA said the AGN approved its 2025 accounts, which it called a record result, and accused the AGN's leadership of trying to discredit it “for purely political purposes.”
“A financial operation cannot be a hedge and speculative at the same time,” the bank said. The auditor's figures and the BCRA's claim leave the public with dueling accounts of how the state’s gold was managed, while the counterparties' identities remain undisclosed.
Reserves, Debt and an Unfinished Case
The BCRA reported gross reserves of US$49.1 billion on Wednesday 7 October, about 2% more than the US$1.023 billion loss cited by the auditor. Argentina's reserves support its US$20 billion IMF programme and foreign debt payments. In April 2025, the IMF approved a 48-month, US$20 billion loan and paid out US$12 billion at once.
The bank also has a US$20 billion exchange stabilisation agreement with the U.S. Treasury, announced on 20 October 2025. The BCRA said on 9 January 2026 that it had settled in December the swaps made under that agreement in late 2025. Those financing arrangements mean the dispute over state reserves reaches beyond officials and auditors: the money is tied to debt payments and an IMF programme.
Another complaint concerns the gold. In September 2026, Peronist senators Martín Soria, Juliana Di Tullio and María Florencia López widened a case opened on 28 April 2026. Their complaint accuses President Javier Milei, Caputo and Bausili of abuse of authority, breach of official duties and embezzlement of public funds. Perfil reported that Bausili first placed gold moved abroad in Switzerland and later in London; the senators dispute his account.
The AGN hasn't published its audit of the gold transfer abroad. No one knows whether Pollicita will open a formal investigation or how Caputo, Bausili and Curutchet will respond. Dalbón said he would add documents on Tuesday 13 October, ask for suspects to be questioned and seek urgent steps to preserve evidence. A complaint is not a finding of wrongdoing, and it freezes no assets.