Rosario, February 16 (NA) – Federal Judge of Rosario Gastón Salmain, prosecuted and with an ineffective arrest warrant due to his immunity, denounced financier Fernando Elías Whpei in Comodoro Py, who accused him of arranging cases in exchange for bribes amid the investigation against him. While the investigation continues at the Federal Court of Rosario, Salmain filed a criminal complaint against Whpei on Thursday, which by lottery fell to the court of María Servini with the intervention of prosecutor Carlos Rívolo. According to what the Argentine News Agency was able to learn, the magistrate stated that the financier lied to favor his procedural situation, as he expressed in his interrogation and radio statements. Labor Reform: Employees will receive half their salaries for illnesses if an article is not changed. In parallel, the judicial operator Santiago Busaniche, also implicated, awaits a ruling from the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation, where his defense insisted on a plea of “insubstantiality of the criminal action and complex procedure,” judicial sources indicated. At the end of last year, Federal Court No. 4 of Rosario, headed by Carlos Vera Barros, prosecuted Salmain for breach of official duties, aggravated passive bribery and malfeasance, and prohibited him from leaving the country. Whpei and Busaniche were also prosecuted. The magistrate ordered the preventive detention of Salmain for having attempted to harm the course of the case, although he clarified that it will not be effective due to the arrest immunity provided for by law 25.320 as long as it remains in force. The Accusation Commission of the Judiciary Council is also investigating the judge for this file and other cases, including one related to the contest that designated him in Rosario, in which he did not declare that he had been removed from the Judiciary after attempting to bribe an employee to assign him a case in a federal social security court. In his statement as a repentant, Whpei described a meeting in the judge's office on Entre Ríos street, where he spoke about the viability of an amparo remedy and received confirmation that it was viable, while the rest of the issues had to be dealt with through Busaniche. The drawn room was made up of Carlos Mahiques, Mariano Borinsky and Juan Carlos Gemignani, who announced his retirement as of March 1, so his replacement remains to be defined. The case originated from Whpei's statement as a repentant before the Public Ministry, in which he affirmed that, with Busaniche's intervention, Salmain authorized him in December 2023 to buy 10 million dollars at the official exchange rate, when the exchange rate ceiling was in effect, in exchange for a 10 percent bribe estimated at some 200,000 dollars. According to the financier, after the change of government and the arrival of Javier Milei, the 10 percent of the operation was reduced to less than 20,000 dollars. Whpei stated that he refused to pay and ended up being denounced. The prosecutors of Rosario corroborated data of his confession through movements of the cases and geolocation of phones. He also pointed out that the contacts were via WhatsApp and personal meetings at the Four Seasons and the Florida Garden, and that the agreed payment had to be made in cash dollars through the operator. In the processing, the ruling held that, with the degree of probability required at this stage, Busaniche, Whpei and Salmain agreed to manipulate contrary to law a file of Federal Court No. 1 of Rosario, in which the authorization for the exit abroad of ten million dollars was granted. According to his statement, the judge refused to accept that amount and demanded the original figure through Busaniche, under the warning of reporting him criminally if he did not comply.
