Buenos Aires province official detained in alleged $27 billion laundering scheme linked to virtual wallets and Sur Finanzas

A La Plata prosecutor has ordered the arrest of Albertina Mangini, a Buenos Aires province official, in a case that alleges the use of biometrics from vulnerable people and former prisoners to open virtual wallet accounts and move money tied to clandestine gambling. For high-risk PSPs, the part worth watching is the method: identity capture, account opening, and fund routing through wallet rails.

1. La Plata prosecutor Betina Lacki ordered Mangini’s detention over allegations that she and others recruited vulnerable people to use their biometric data without consent, then opened virtual wallet accounts in their name to launder money allegedly coming from illegal gambling in Buenos Aires province.
2. The investigation says the laundering circuit involved around $27.000 millones. Prosecutors also placed Ignacio Leonel Marchioni under scrutiny; he is already charged in the Sur Finanzas case, and investigators suspect he played a role in the laundering chain.
3. The same name, Marchioni, links this case to the separate Sur Finanzas file being handled by federal judge Juan Tomás Rodríguez in Lomas de Zamora. The text says Sur Finanzas’ owner, Maximiliano Vallejo, had ties with AFA president Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia.
4. According to the case file, the organization used people in vulnerable situations as financial “mules” and specifically targeted former prisoners through a liaison office inside the Patronato de Liberados, which falls under the Buenos Aires province Ministry of Justice, headed by Martín Mena. The agency is run by Aníbal Hnatiuk.
5. Lacki charged Mangini, Mauro Perrotta, Juan Ignacio Campoli Sillero, Catriel Taubenschlag, Cristian Alejandro Scigliano and Ignacio Leonel Marchioni with fraud, money laundering and criminal association. Mangini has already been charged and detained, and the prosecutor may seek pre-trial detention in the coming days; the case is before Guarantee Judge No. 6 of La Plata, Agustín Carlos Crispo.

The case also mentions Martín Insaurralde, the former mayor of Lomas de Zamora, as another figure whose wealth is under suspicion in connection with clandestine gambling. The immediate takeaway for PSPs is not the political cast list; it is the combination of biometric onboarding, virtual wallets, and mule activity, which is exactly the sort of setup compliance teams end up picking apart after the money has already moved.