Former footballer Sergio Agüero and his esports organisation KRÜ Esports have been cited in an ongoing Argentinian judicial investigation into an international drug trafficking and money-laundering network.
According to reports by Latin American publication La Política Online, judicial wiretaps, seized electronic devices, and commercial documents annexed to the investigation indicate that leaders of the criminal network attempted to leverage Agüero’s public image and the KRÜ Esports brand to establish an event ticketing platform under the name “KRÜ Tickets”.
Investigators allege that commercial entities tied to the network sought to integrate illicit narcotics capital with event ticketing operations in entertainment and digital sports. Intercepted communications on seized mobile phones detailed commercial proposals, technological integration plans, and advertising scripts involving Agüero.
Representatives for Agüero and KRÜ Esports have firmly denied any involvement or operational ties to the allegations. According to his management team, Agüero received business proposals from the intermediaries but rejected all offers and terminated contact upon detecting commercial inconsistencies during initial due diligence. Management emphasised that KRÜ Esports never executed operational contracts or received funds from the entities under investigation.
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The Esports Radar ran a cursory investigation of the publicly available domain records. The website krutickets.com, which is currently inaccessible, previously identified its operator as the Miami-based KRÜ Tickets LLC, according to a version of the site retrieved through web search engines. In contrast, KRÜ Esports’ entities are Slak Esports SRL, registered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Slak Esports Europa SRL in Barcelona, Spain.
According to data available through Google research, KRÜ Tickets’ website did not actually offer esports tickets; instead, the platform was focusing on providing access to sporting events, city tours, and major theme park experiences, including Disney attractions. Additionally, no formal announcement or any public record from KRÜ Esports confirming ownership or a corporate relationship with KRÜ Tickets have been identified. This could suggest that KRÜ Tickets was a venture not connected to or authorised by KRÜ Esports, although the available evidence is not sufficient to establish this conclusively.
After the story went public, KRÜ Esports posted the following statement on its official website:
“Rumours have been circulating linking Sergio with individuals who, without his knowledge of their activities or intentions, attempted to approach KRÜ seeking to benefit from his image.
The situation is clear: there is not, nor has there ever been, any professional, personal, or commercial link between Sergio and/or our club, and anyone belonging to that group of people. As with any project presented to Sergio as a businessman, he was approached at the time with a proposal to partner a ticketing company with KRÜ. The team evaluated it, as we do with everything, and rejected it. That was the end of it: zero partnership, zero investment, zero joint activity.
At KRÜ Esports, we continue working towards clear and transparent communication, which is why it is important for us to bring clarity to this matter.”
Argentinian judicial authorities are reviewing seized data to ascertain whether suspects attempted to exploit KRÜ Esports’ commercial IP without the authorisation or awareness of its leadership. To date, no formal charges or legal indictments have been brought against Sergio Agüero or KRÜ Esports as the investigation continues.
Editor`s note: This story has been updated with KRÜ’s statement.
