[NYTr] Argentina-Venez: Case of the Cash-Stuffed Suitcase (continued)

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[One of those arrested in Miami last week and accused of acting as
"unregistereed agents of the Venezuelan government" was given bail
today. The US is now claiming that these "agents" offered the
cooperating Miami businessman, Guido Antonini Wilson, $2 million to hush
up the so-called "secret contribution" of $800,000 from Venezuela to
Christina Fernandez Kirchner's campaign in Argentina.  Last week's
stories had them threatening Antonini and the lives of his children.
The FBI supposedly had this on tape, which meant Antonini was wearing a
wire; today they say the conversations were not audiotaped, but
videotaped. Today they also introduced "fresh details," i.e., the claim
that Antonini was offered $2 million. 

It's all utterly ridiculous. As the Venezualans said, if Chavez wanted
to give Fernandez big bucks, he could have done so himself. He didn't
need to funnel it through some Miami-based weapons and oil trader.
Argentine customs agents were the ones who seized the cash. Today the
US admitted that Antonini is cooperating with them.  Argentina has
repeated their extradition request, pending since August.  The
Bloomberg stories below are fairly complete.-NY Transfer]

PREVIOUS Coverage: 

"Argentina, Venezuela Accuse US of Smear Campaign " 12/14
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071210/072929.html

AND: http://tinyurl.com/25qc8o [list of earlier stories]


AFP via Google - Dec 17, 2007
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gEI3kkODij1qrv3dkahmjlKRmA1A

US claims Venezuela offered payment to hush up Argentine electoral fund

MIAMI (AFP) — A US prosecutor claimed on Monday three covert Venezuelan
agents offered two million dollars to hush up an alleged attempt to
funnel 800,000 dollars from Venezuela to the electoral campaign of
Cristina Kirchner, who is now Argentina's president.

Kirchner earlier dismissed as "garbage" the claim that Venezuela's
leftist President Hugo Chavez sought to pump funds into her
presidential campaign.

That allegation was made on Friday after the Venezuelans were arrested
in Miami last week and charged with failing to notify US authorities
they were agents of the Venezuelan government.

The arrests followed the seizure in August of a bag with 800,000
dollars in cash found in Buenos Aires aboard a chartered flight from
Caracas.

Guido Antonini, a dual US-Venezuelan national, who was carrying the
suitcase, later flew back to his home in Miami, where the defendants
allegedly approached him.

The three Venezuelans offered two million dollars to Antonini to
conceal the origin of the money and the fact it was directed "to the
presidential campaign in Argentina," said Assistant US Attorney Thomas
Mulvihill.

Last week, the prosecutor said that Franklin Duran, one of the
defendants, mentioned in a recorded conversation that the money was for
the electoral campaign of Kirchner, who was sworn in as president on
December 10.

Chavez critics claim the firebrand Venezuelan president has pumped
large amounts of cash into the presidential campaigns of
fellow-leftists in Latin America over recent years.

Argentina's new president and her predecessor, husband Nestor Kirchner,
are considered close allies of Chavez.

                           ***

Bloomberg - Dec 17, 2007
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aRsIc5afjUMk&refer=latin_america

U.S. Judge Grants Bail for One in `Suitcase Scandal'

By David Voreacos

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A judge granted bail to one of four men accused
of intimidating a U.S. citizen who carried $800,000 in cash to
Argentina allegedly for the election campaign of President Cristina
Fernandez de Kirchner.

The men were arrested Dec. 11 in Miami on charges of acting as
unregistered agents of Venezuela. U.S. prosecutors said the men tried
to coerce Florida businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson to tell
no one about the source and destination of cash he carried from
Venezuela on Aug. 4. Authorities seized the money at the Buenos Aires
airport.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Turnoff in Miami set bail at $150,000 for
Rodolfo Edgardo Wanseele Paciello, 40. Turnoff delayed his order for 48
hours to allow prosecutors to appeal. Another judge denied bail last
week to the other men: Moises Maionica, 36; Franklin Duran, 40; and
Carlos Kauffmann, 35.

``There's no question that what he is charged with is a very serious
and grave matter,'' Turnoff said of Wanseele Paciello. ``I cannot find
by clear and convincing evidence that he is a danger to the community
and a risk of flight.''

The criminal charges prompted both Kirchner, who was elected Oct. 29,
and the administration of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to criticize
the U.S. for trying to discredit their governments. The incident,
dubbed ``the suitcase scandal'' by the Argentine media, prompted Chavez
critics to point to the incident as an example of how he may be using
his country's oil wealth to promote socialism in Latin America.

A fifth suspect, Antonio Jose Canchica Gomez, 37, remains at large. The
case is expected to go to a federal grand jury in Miami for possible
indictment. All are Venezuelan except Wanseele Paciello, who is
Uruguayan.

Argentine Warrant

Antonini Wilson, who has business ties to Venezuela, flew from Caracas
to Buenos Aires aboard a plane chartered by Argentina's state energy
company. Argentine customs agents seized the money without charging
him. Antonini Wilson, a citizen of the U.S. and Venezuela, returned to
Florida. An Argentine judge has issued a warrant for Antonini Wilson to
answer questions.

At the hearing today, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Mulvihill revealed
that Antonini Wilson had been offered $2 million on behalf of the
Venezuelan government. Mulvihill also disclosed that Antonini Wilson
has been cooperating with prosecutors, a point not stated last week in
an arrest affidavit filed in the case by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.

Recorded Conversations

U.S. authorities say that less than three weeks after Antonini Wilson's
entry into Argentina, agents of Venezuela began intimidating him in
Florida to keep silent about the source and destination of the cash.
The FBI based its case on recorded conversations and cooperating
witnesses.

Duran told Antonini Wilson he'd spoken with Venezuela's vice president
and the country's Intelligence and Preventive Services Directorate
about the donation, FBI agent Michael Lasiewicki wrote in an affidavit.
Duran told him ``authorities in both Argentina and Venezuela would
pursue'' him if he ``said that the seized funds did not belong to
him,'' according to the document.

Kauffmann said his future actions could put the lives of his children
at risk, Lasiewicki wrote. Duran told Antonini Wilson that ``the people
in Venezuela and Argentina wanted'' his ``mess to be solved so that the
truth didn't come out,'' the agent said.

Maionica told Antonini Wilson that Venezuela's state oil company
``would pay for all the expenses and financial penalties that Antonini
might incur as a result of the seizure of the $800,000,'' the affidavit
said.

Oct. 27 Flight

The affidavit said Canchica Gomez flew to Miami on Oct. 27 and met the
next day with Antonini Wilson in Plantation, Florida. Canchica Gomez
told Antonini Wilson to sign over a power of attorney and that he
``would be skillfully and discretely helped,'' the affidavit said. It
said Wanseele Paciello drove Canchica Gomez to the meeting and
conducted counter-surveillance.

At the bail hearing, Mulvihill and federal public defender Sowmya
Bharathi offered fresh details about Wanseele Paciello, a native of
Uruguay who came to the U.S. in 1999 or 2000. Wanseele Paciello lives
alone in Miami and has worked for the past five years at an
import-export company, where he earns $51,000 a year, said Bharathi,
his attorney.

Mulvihill said Wanseele Paciello drove Canchica Gomez to a Starbucks
restaurant in Plantation. FBI agents conducted surveillance of the
meeting while Wanseele Paciello did counter- surveillance, the
prosecutor said. He moved his white Ford Escort several times during
the meeting, Mulvihill said.

After the meeting, Wanseele Paciello tried to elude detection by
driving more than 40 miles to reach a casino that was only about seven
miles away, the prosecutor said. He changed speeds as he drove, at one
point going only 35 miles per hour in a 70 miles per hour zone,
Mulvihill said.

FBI Testimony

An FBI agent, Brian Young, testified about the surveillance. He said
that Wanseele Paciello was not on audiotape, although agents made
videotapes of him.

On Dec. 11, hours before the arrests, Maionica, Duran and another
unidentified person talked to Antonini Wilson about ``the creation of a
false paper trail to conceal the true source and purpose'' of the
money, according to the affidavit.

Mulvihill said at a hearing last week that the men were arrested last
week because Duran and Kauffmann, two ``extremely wealthy
individuals,'' were preparing to fly that night to Venezuela on Duran's
plane.

The cash seizure led to the resignation of a vice president at
Venezuela's state oil company and the firing of the head of an
Argentine government agency. Argentine authorities later charged
Antonini Wilson with fraud. Argentine law bars foreigners from making
secret political donations or bringing in undeclared cash.

The case is U.S. v. Moises Maionica, 07-mj-3513, U.S. District Court,
Southern District of Florida (Miami). 

                            ***

Bloomberg - Dec 17, 2007
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=avj9DgBq3bkY&refer=latin_america

Argentine Cabinet Chief Asks U.S. to Extradite Wilson

By Eliana Raszewski

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Argentina's Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernandez
urged the U.S. to extradite Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, who is
cooperating with a U.S. investigation of alleged illegal foreign agents.

Antonini Wilson was stopped Aug. 4 at a Buenos Aires airport with
$790,550 of undeclared cash and is now back in the U.S. He is at the
center of an international dispute over whether he carried Venezuelan
money destined for President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's election
campaign.

``If the U.S. wants to cooperate, the best thing it can do is to send
Antonini Wilson,'' Fernandez said in an interview with Radio America in
Buenos Aires.

The U.S. must give Argentine courts the opportunity to question
Antonini Wilson, Fernandez said. The U.S. charges were rejected by
Argentine President Fernandez and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who
last week pledged to further strengthen their ties.

``Antonini Wilson stopped being an accused and has been converted into
a victim,'' Fernandez said. ``The effect of this is that he'll never be
extradited.''

Suitcase

Antonini Wilson arrived in Buenos Aires aboard a plane chartered by
Argentina's state energy company Enarsa in a flight from Venezuela with
officials of both countries' energy companies.

``Nobody in the U.S. is investigating what happened with the suitcase,
what they are investigating is the presence of alleged foreign
government officials acting without being registered,'' said Fernandez,
the cabinet chief.

Claudio Uberti, the head of an Argentine agency that controls highway
concessions, was fired for allowing Antonini Wilson on the
government-chartered plane. Cabinet Chief Fernandez said Aug. 10 that
Antonini Wilson was allowed on the plane at the behest of Petroleos de
Venezuela SA, Venezuela's state-run oil company.

Venezuela's information minister Willian Lara today charged that the
U.S. is using the investigation as a ``campaign'' to undermine the
leadership of the South American countries and discrediting Chavez and
Argentine President Fernandez.

``They'll let statements lacking credibility fly to strengthen their
campaign against the leaders of Latin America,'' he said.

A U.S. judge today granted bail to one of four men accused of acting as
illegal foreign agents by intimidating Antonini Wilson. Prosecutors
said the men tried to coerce Florida businessman Antonini Wilson to
tell no one about the source and destination of the cash.