A criminal complaint over gold-related operations that the National Audit Office says cost Argentina US$1.023 billion in 2025 names Economy Minister Luis Caputo, central bank president Santiago Bausili and central bank board member Juan Curutchet. Lawyer Gregorio Dalbón’s complaint became public on Friday 9 October 2026 and went to federal judge Ariel Lijo, with federal prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita taking part. No one faces charges. The officials named remain presumed innocent.
What the audit found
The National Audit Office (Auditoría General de la Nación, AGN), Congress’s public-sector auditor, reviewed the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic’s 2025 financial statements. It attributed US$960.2 million in losses to derivatives settled in dollars and backed by some of the bank’s physical gold. Option premiums added another US$62.8 million, taking the total cited by the auditor to US$1.023 billion.
AGN president Juan Manuel Olmos said the central bank “erred in the calculation” and that the AGN hadn’t recorded a loss of that size since it began auditing the bank, Perfil reported. La Política Online reported that the auditor approved the procedure behind the operations, but not their result. A separate AGN audit of the physical gold and its transfer abroad remains under way, Perfil reported.
Dalbón wants the court to establish who decided, authorized and designed the operations, which counterparties took part, what risks officials took, what controls existed and whether the state lost money. “1.023 billion dollars is not an accounting entry,” he wrote, according to La Política Online. “They are the Republic’s resources and demand an explanation equal to such a figure.”
The bank disputes the loss
The BCRA rejected the AGN’s interpretation on Thursday 8 October. It said the combined value of its gold and hedges generated a net gain of US$2.505 billion in 2025, and said it has hedged 100% of its gold against a sharp price fall since 2007. When gold rises, as it did in 2025, the bank said, the insurance loses money while the metal gains.
The central bank 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 BCRA said. It hasn’t explained how it calculated the US$2.505 billion net result. Neither the BCRA nor the AGN has publicly named the counterparties behind the gold operations.
Reserves, lending and unanswered questions
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 underpin its US$20 billion IMF programme and foreign debt payments. The IMF approved a 48-month, US$20 billion loan in April 2025, paying out US$12 billion at once. The BCRA also has a US$20 billion exchange stabilisation agreement with the U.S. Treasury, announced on 20 October 2025. On 9 January 2026, the bank said it had settled in December the swaps made under that agreement in late 2025.
The gold also features in a separate complaint. 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.
A complaint is not a finding of wrongdoing. It freezes no assets. The AGN’s audit of the gold transfer abroad hasn’t been published, and it remains unclear 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.