After the team of prosecutors investigating judicial corruption in the courts of Rosaryrequested the arrest and investigation of the federal judge Gastón Salmainthe decision made by Justice was known in the last hours.
Federal judge Carlos Vera Barros granted a request from the Public Prosecutor’s Office and summoned the magistrate investigated in a case for alleged participation in an illicit association with businessmen on November 25. Fernando Whpei and the clerk Santiago Busaniche. However, the Public Prosecutor’s Office did not proceed with the arrest request because Salmain has immunity from arrest, according to Law 25,320 on jurisdictions for federal judges.
The Federal Court No. 4 of Rosario, headed by Vera Barros, signed the measure after considering that There were sufficient elements to advance the investigation not only the current head of Federal Court No. 1 of Rosariobut also of the other two involved, whose appearances in court are scheduled for the 26 and 27 of the current, respectively.
The case put the spotlight on an alleged criminal network dedicated to facilitating the output of 10 million dollars on accounts of abroad between September 2023 and April 2024, through the manipulation of judicial files in the city of Santa Fe.
Salmain was charged with passive bribery aggravated by his status as a judge and malfeasancein addition to abuse of authority in a related criminal file for which his office was recently raided. The measure was requested after the intervention of a team of federal prosecutors belonging to the Rosario Fiscal Unit, others to PROCELAC and the Administrative Investigations Attorney’s Office (PIA).
The case also involves other figures from the judicial and business spheres, such as the former federal judge Marcelo Bailaque -currently detained- and the former head of ARCA Rosario, Carlos Vaudagnain the investigation for alleged extortion of regional businessmen.
The main hypothesis points to a corruption plot inside the federal courts of Rosario, where, according to the prosecutor’s office, people and companies were favored under investigation in exchange for payments or other illicit benefits. Among the maneuvers investigated, a resolution signed by Salmain at the end of 2023 stands out, by which the judge granted a precautionary measure presented by Attila Fideicomisos SRL —signature that would be controlled by whpei— which enabled access to Single and Free Exchange Market to buy up to 10 million dollars at the official value.
The financier was one of those repentant in the case and his testimony is one of the axes of the investigation into extortion, laundering and the outflow of currency in the Rosario judicial system.
In December 2023, under the context of exchange restrictions and a marked gap between the official and informal dollars, the company led by Whpei obtained authorization for exchange operations for the aforementioned sum in dollars, supposedly intended to pay off debts with foreign creditors, although justice could not establish the real existence of such liabilities.
The judicial resolution, adopted without consulting the Public Prosecutor’s Office and despite the appeal of Central Bankwas revoked by the Federal Court of Appeals of Rosario in March 2024. That revocation stopped the course of the operation, while the investigation began to focus on the relationship between the magistrate and the financial businessman, as well as the existence of possible returns or irregular payments linked to the judicial intervention.
Last October, the MPF had requested the seizure of Salmain’s cell phone in his office, an iPhone 17, but the attempted raid was frustrated by the leak of the court order. Upon being informed, the judge reported the episode to the Airport Security Police, a movement that was also under investigation. Last week, finally, the raids were carried out and the office and electronic devices were seized, at the request of the guarantee judge Román Pablo Lanzón.
