Rosario appeals court upholds 9-year prison sentence for former chief prosecutor in clandestine gambling corruption case

The Rosario Criminal Appeals Court has confirmed a 9-year prison sentence for Patricio Serjal, the former chief prosecutor of Rosario, over corruption tied to illegal gambling. For PSPs and acquiring teams, the case is a reminder that clandestine gambling in Santa Fe was not just a criminal-operator story; it reached prosecutors, political figures, and the people controlling access to information.

1. Serjal, 49, was found responsible for collecting monthly bribes in dollars in exchange for passing information to Leonardo Peiti, an operator of illegal gambling in Santa Fe. He was detained in 2020, after which the local prosecutor’s office was effectively dismantled.
2. The second-instance ruling was signed by judges Ismael Manfrin, Javier Beltramone, and Carolina Hernández. The court was not unanimous: Manfrin and Hernández voted to uphold the sentence for criminal association, while Beltramone dissented. All three agreed on confirming the conviction for aggravated passive bribery and misuse of public services.
3. The ruling also covered Nelson Ugolini, a former employee of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, whose 5-year sentence became final for simple passive bribery and, by majority, criminal association. Ugolini had been Gustavo Ponce Asahad’s secretary and, according to the case, also took bribes from the illegal gambling network in exchange for filtering sensitive information to Peiti.
4. Peiti reportedly paid close to $5,000 for that “service.” Ponce Asahad and Peiti both accepted plea-style cooperating-defendant deals as arrepentidos and were convicted through abbreviated proceedings. Ponce Asahad was quickly removed by the Santa Fe legislature when charged.
5. During his cooperation, Ponce Asahad said there was a political layer above Serjal, specifically in the hands of provincial senator Armando “Pipi” Traferri, who represents the San Lorenzo district. Traferri was charged in October 2024, long after the case gathered momentum, because he had parliamentary immunity. Prosecutors said he was the beneficiary of the money.

Prosecutors Luis Schiappa Pietra and Matías Edery originally led the investigation, later taken over by Marisol Fabbro and José Luis Caterina. Their allegation was blunt: Serjal, Traferri, Ponce Asahad, and Ugolini formed a criminal association designed to let Peiti keep operating the illegal gambling and betting business. For payment processors, the useful detail is not the courtroom drama; it is the structure. Illegal gaming networks often depend on access, information, and protection just as much as on transaction rails.