Bausili says Argentina’s gold is in Switzerland; AGN can’t audit transfer

The controversy over where the government of Javier Milei has placed Argentina’s gold reserves continues, after the National Audit Office (AGN, for its Spanish initials) denied claims by the head of the Central Bank that the office audited a transfer of the reserves to Switzerland.

On Wednesday, while being questioned by the Senate over the government’s bill to reform the Central Bank’s charter, its president, Santiago Bausili, was asked about the location of the country’s gold reserves.

Bausili said part of the gold bars are in the vaults of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Switzerland. 

The BCRA president compared the transaction to exchanging older United States dollar bills (the ones with a “small-portrait”, which have a lesser value in the black market) for newer “large-portrait” ones, stating that the gold was sent abroad to replace the bars with higher-purity metal.

Bausili explained that Argentina’s gold bars were minted in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, and that their quality varies with age.

He said that, due to “high demand for gold bars in the market” in 2024, standards for accepting older bars were relaxed and the BCRA — as its known in Spanish — “seized the opportunity” to convert lower-grade gold into higher-purity gold, which was then “transferred and deposited at the BIS.”

The official claimed that when a financial market participant discloses its financial positions, “it invites other financial agents to trade against those interests” and that “certain information is kept from the market to prevent agents from constantly taking counter-positions against it.”

However, he assured that the BCRA balance sheets had been reviewed and approved by the AGN in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Claim denied Despite this assurance, a report by the AGN seen by the Herald’s sister publication Ámbito Financiero showed the agency was unable to audit the transfer and that “placement contracts for gold bars with the BIS and/or any other foreign depository […] do not exist to date, nor did they exist as of 12/31/2024.”

The report by the AGN also says that when the organization first requested the information, four transfers of 250 bars dated between June and August 2024 had already occurred.

In September, Bausili responded to the note from the AGN, insisting that “the requested information is classified and is contained in restricted files,” but maintained that the BCRA always responds to requests from the AGN and that the files remain “available for inspection.”

While questioning Bausili in the Upper House, Peronist Juliana Di Tullio called his version into question, claiming the BCRA president “lied to the Senate” and that Argentine gold is still at the Bank of England in London, where it was sent by Economy Minister Luis Caputo in 2024 to earn yields.

Di Tullio said she will expand a criminal complaint against Bausili and summon him to provide explanations before the Senate.