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Stakes High For U.S. and Argentina in Cash Scandal
Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson was stopped with $800,000 in cash.
(Marcelo Hernandez - Associated Press)
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After Antonini was stopped at the airport, Argentine authorities let him go. An Argentine judge on Thursday said a witness -- the former secretary for the Argentine official who chartered the Cessna flight -- testified that she saw Antonini on Aug. 6 at a ceremony in Argentina's Casa Rosada.
Antonini left Argentina on Aug. 7 using a U.S. passport and stopped in Uruguay -- where Chávez also traveled that day -- before returning to his home in Florida.
Argentine authorities a month later asked the United States to extradite Antonini to face possible currency smuggling violations in Argentina, but the FBI already was secretly using Antonini as an informant, monitoring his telephone calls and his meetings with alleged Venezuelan agents in Florida, according to an indictment filed in Miami on Wednesday.
The indictment stated that Antonini on Aug. 23 met three Venezuelans at a Fort Lauderdale steakhouse. The Venezuelans informed Antonini that the money he was given came from the Venezuelan government and was meant for Fernández de Kirchner's campaign, and they warned him that foreign government officials would pursue him unless he claimed the money was his own, according to court documents.
Those three Venezuelans, plus one Uruguayan, are under arrest in Miami and have been charged with being illegal agents of Venezuela operating in the United States. A fifth man, also from Venezuela, was indicted but remains at large. If convicted, each faces up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. They are scheduled to enter their pleas Dec. 28.
On Dec. 7, two of the Venezuelans -- Carlos Kauffmann and Franklin Dur¿n -- sued American Express Bank International in Miami for withholding millions of dollars in their bank accounts because the two men were listed by the government as "Politically Exposed Persons." The term generally applies to individuals who are foreign government officials, though their family members and associates also can be included under that designation. The USA Patriot Act requires financial institutions to review thoroughly the accounts of such people.
In addition to being alleged agents of Venezuela, Kauffmann and Durán own Industrias Venoco, a petrochemical and oil services company that does business with Venezuela's state oil company. Dur¿n is also co-owner of an arms importing company that has provided weapons for police agencies in Venezuela.
On Dec. 11, Durán gave Antonini documents to cover up the true source and destination of the $800,000, according to the indictment. The FBI arrested the four accused agents the following day.
"I think people should sort of step back, calm down and take a deep breath," said Michael Shifter, a Washington-based analyst with the Inter-American Dialogue. "Clearly this is a scandal with very serious implications, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions."
