Argentina: The Elite, Corruption, and the Price of Challenging Power

By Pablo Rutigliano – October 7, 2025

Argentina is cartelized. Not only in its economy, but also in its thinking, in its bureaucracy, in its way of covering up the privileges of a few under the guise of institutionality. For decades, a model of power has been perfected that is reproduced in offices, business chambers, secretariats, and the regulatory authorities themselves. They call it a "regulatory body," but in reality, they are the guardians of a system that only serves to perpetuate corruption.

This structure, which dominates the country from the shadows, has found its greatest source of impunity in mining. They hand out concessions, manipulate figures, under-invoice exports, smuggle lithium, and then sit down at international conferences to talk about "transparency and development." It is an obsolete model, functional to monopolies and multinationals that buy up the assets of small and medium-sized mining companies, the true generators of national value, for pennies on the dollar.

For years, we have been saying the same thing: the only way to break this network of interests is through real tokenization, blockchain traceability, and verifiable transparency. And that is what Atómico 3 proposed. An economic model that is not born of rhetoric, but of technical, accounting, and legal knowledge. Because in mining, every peso invested in exploration, drilling, laboratory studies, or geological certification is an activated economic asset, not a wasted expense. It is the first stone of a reserve that can be converted into real wealth, genuine currency, and sustainable development.

That is why tokenization is not a whim: it is the bridge between investment and truth. It is the tool that allows every penny allocated to a mining SME to be visible, traceable, and auditable, under international standards and within the framework of regulations that the National Securities Commission itself should have strengthened, not destroyed. Because Resolution 1060, beyond its apparent regulatory intent, regulates absolutely nothing: it is a true institutional mess. A maneuver that, far from bringing order to the market, seeks to dismantle innovative models, crush transparency, and maintain control of a system dominated by financial monopolies. Anyone who has tried to tokenize assets without subordinating themselves to the interests of that caste—such as Atómico 3—ends up persecuted, defamed, or suspended.

It was no coincidence that the company's suspension came just after the Latin American Lithium Chamber, which I chair, formally expanded the criminal complaint in case 3309/2023, initiated in 2023, in May. That case, filed in federal court, not only investigates but has already judicially determined the existence of lithium smuggling and under-invoicing. The federal court prosecuted and confirmed the responsibility of companies operating in complicity with that same crime, exposing the systematic evasion scheme that we have been pointing out for some time. This is not a hypothesis or a pending complaint: it is a proven fact, a proven crime, and a system that, despite the evidence, continues to be protected by the very institutional actors who should have dismantled it.

And it was no coincidence either that Federal Court No. 4 confirmed the prosecution of Livent, validating with its ruling what the Latin American Chamber of Lithium has been arguing for years. We said it with documentation, with audits, with technical reports, and we reiterated it in every judicial and administrative filing. The reaction was immediate: instead of investigating those responsible for the smuggling, the CNV decided to go after the company that proposed the most advanced transparency in the region.

This is clearly demonstrated by the complaint filed, case number 36.601/25, in which the technical reports presented by the CNV as alleged evidence are completely unfounded. They are based on erroneous, inconsistent, and arbitrary interpretations that disregard the Capital Markets Law itself, which unequivocally establishes that Atómico 3 is not a negotiable security. That condition alone invalidates any attempt to apply sanctions under a regime that does not apply to it and reveals a deliberate manipulation of legal criteria to justify an unsubstantiated suspension.

Added to this are countless technical shortcomings, where attempts are made to validate criteria that do not even exist in current regulations. There are no regulations on how a token is defined, how a tokenization process is developed, or how it is treated for accounting or legal purposes within the Argentine capital market. In other words, the CNV acted without a legal framework, without regulatory procedures, and without the technical competence to do so. What is clearly evident is an abuse of power and manifest arbitrariness in the decision to suspend Atómico 3, violating not only the constitutional principles of legality and due process, but also the right to innovation, free competition, and economic freedom.

The president of the CNV and his entourage are the most accurate representation of this decline. They talk about regulation, but what they do is destroy. They talk about protecting investors, but what they do is protect monopolies. They talk about transparency, but all they show is a legal, technical, and moral mess. They are the most obvious expression of what Argentina needs to overcome: the culture of fear of change.

So it comes as no surprise that the paid media repeat official statements without reading them, that CAEM defends the same companies being prosecuted, and that officials look the other way. They are all cogs in the same wheel, part of a machine that only works if no one challenges it. But Atómico 3 challenged it, exposed it, and broke it. And in a country where the truth is uncomfortable, that has consequences.

However, cases 36.601/25, for defamation and damages, and 3309/2023, for under-invoicing and smuggling, are moving forward with the force of truth. Because this country needs to regain its institutional dignity, it needs to trust again in those who do, in those who innovate, in those who take risks. Atómico 3 was not born to obey the system, it was born to change it. To demonstrate that transparency is not proclaimed, it is implemented. That traceability is not promised, it is executed. And that technology is not feared, it is understood.

Today, what is at stake is not a company, but a model for the country. One that can continue to sell its lithium at the price of silence, or one that can tokenize it transparently and put it at the service of real development. They will not silence us. They will not destroy an idea that was born to liberate SMEs, democratize mining, and show that the future is already here. They can suspend a company, but they cannot suspend the truth. And that truth, sooner or later, will expose them to history.