[NYTr] Argentina, Venezuela and the strange case of the cash-stuffed suitcase

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[This scandal was just breaking yesterday with only one mainstream news
story about it. Today there is wide coverage, and it develops that the
"Venezuelan businessman" is actually a resident of Dade in South
Florida. He was discovered traveling on a private jet to Argentina with
a suitcase jammed with $800,000 in yanqui dollars. The group of
international businessmen (and/or maybe an Argentine official) he
was traveling with were said to be discussing Argentina's natural gas
deals, and some attempts were made to link him with Hugo Chavez, who
just visited Argentina (see the last story below, AP via The New York
Times, Aug 8th, where the bagman is reported to be "a Venezuelan").
This now appears to be unlikely and the scandal seems more an Argentine
affair.-NYTransfer]

excerpted from
VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - August 9 & 10, 2007

[A scandal developing in Argentina involves a Venezuelan-born
businessman who is a resident of South Florida.  The Miami Herald
reports that Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson was arrested carrying
$800,000 in undeclared cash as he traveled aboard a chartered flight
with a top Argentine government official.  The story is causing
political turmoil in Buenos Aires, for corruption has plagued the last
years of the presidency of Nestor Kirchner, and may affect his wife,
Senator Christina Kirchner, in her campaign.  Chavez says the
businessman has no link to the Venezuelan government, the Los Angeles
Times reports. -VIO]


The Los Angeles Times - August 10, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-money10aug10,1,2442396.story

Bag of cash spurs Argentine worries

By Patrick J. McDonnell

A shadowy Venezuelan businessman toting almost $800,000 in his suitcase
arrived in a private jet chartered by the Argentine government.

He allegedly failed to declare the cash, as required by law, but
customs inspectors opened the bag and discovered the stash, in neat
bundles of $100 bills.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was visiting to ink new aid
deals, promptly labeled the matter a U.S. plot to undermine his latest
petro-diplomacy initiatives.

"It is an absolute falsehood that the $800,000 had anything to do with
functionaries of our government," Chavez told reporters here.

The murky affair, which surfaced this week, has become the latest
scandal to shake the government of Argentine President Nestor Kirchner,
one of Chavez's staunchest Latin American allies.

The timing -- just as Chavez was in Buenos Aires and pledging an
additional $1-billion-plus support package for Argentina -- heightened
suspicions of unsavory petro-dollar dealings in the midst of an
increasingly heated Argentine election campaign.

"This is the proof of the corruption of this government," said Elisa
Carrio, an opposition candidate in the Oct. 28 presidential campaign.

It turned out that an Argentine state-controlled energy concern had
chartered the jet in connection with a $400-million gas deal signed
this week by Kirchner and Chavez.

The government placed blame on the faulty judgment of a well-connected
Argentine federal planning official, Claudio Uberti, who has close ties
to Venezuela and was on the jet. Uberti was forced to resign Thursday.

Uberti and another senior Argentine government representative composed
an official delegation returning to Buenos Aires from Venezuela. Also
on board were several executives of the Venezuelan state oil company,
Petroleos de Venezuela, and the son of a company vice president,
authorities said.

And then there was the cash-toting Venezuelan businessman, according to
the official Argentine account.

Observers immediately labeled the fishy incident the latest setback in
the campaign of Kirchner's designated successor, first lady Cristina
Fernandez de Kirchner, a federal senator with a big lead in preelection
surveys.

"The question is: How many blows will the poll advantage of Cristina
Kirchner endure?" columnist Fernando Gonzalez wrote in the daily
newspaper Clarin.

Just last month, Economy Minister Felisa Miceli was forced to resign
when a bag containing about $31,000 in U.S. currency and 100,000
Argentine pesos, worth about $30,000, was discovered in her office
bathroom. No satisfactory explanation has emerged.

That awkward find came after a public works bribery scandal unveiled a
pattern of false billing in government contracts that tarnished the
Kirchners' clean-hands image.

"For the first time, Argentina is in serious combat against
corruption," President Kirchner declared Thursday, as reports of the
latest scandal dominated headlines.

Authorities identified the Venezuelan businessman as Guido Alejandro
Antonini Wilson, 46, an oil executive with a passion for car racing and
a residence in Miami. Whether his alleged failure to report the cash
was an oversight or something more sinister remained unclear.

Also unknown is the intended purpose of the $800,000.

Investigators are trying to find out, but apparently without the
moneyman: Antonini Wilson was allowed Wednesday to leave Argentina
aboard a commercial flight to the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, Clarin
reported -- after he had forfeited $400,000 as a penalty.

                                     ***

The Miami Herald - August 10, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/venezuela/story/198529.html

Venezuelan from Dade at the center of Argentine scandal

By Nancy San Martin

The mystery of the Key Biscayne Venezuelan caught with more than
$790,000 in undeclared cash at a Buenos Aires airport turned into
scandal Thursday with the resignation of a senior Argentine government
official who accompanied him.

Still unclear: Why was Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, 46, carrying
the cash? Is he friend or foe of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez? Why
was he traveling with Claudio Uberti, head of the Argentine government
agency that controls toll roads and the main Argentine negotiator in
several trade and investment agreements between Buenos Aires and
Caracas?

Antonini's detention Saturday sparked speculation in Buenos Aires and
Caracas that the money was for the presidential campaign of Argentine
President Néstor Kirchner's wife Cristina.

But it also came amid a string of corruption scandals buffeting
Kirchner's government.

Chávez has been widely accused -- but never confirmed -- of helping to
finance the presidential campaigns of fellow leftists such as Bolivia's
Evo Morales, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and Ecuador's Rafael Correa.

Uberti was asked to resign because he allowed Antonini to join an
official Argentine delegation on the flight, Planning Minister Julio De
Vido said.

Argentine newspaper Clarín reported that most of Antonini's cash was
seized but he was allowed to leave Monday on a commercial flight to
Uruguay.

Uberti and Antonini were aboard a chartered Argentina-based airplane
that landed Saturday at the Jorge Newbery airport on a flight from
Caracas. Also on the plane were Exequiel Espinoza, president of the
Argentine government's ENARSA energy company; a public relations aide
to Uberti; and four employees of the Venezuelan government's PDVSA oil
company -- Ruth Berhrrenes, Nelly Cardozo, Wilfredo Avila and Daniel
Uzcateguy, who is the son of PDVSA's vice president.

ENARSA issued a statement Wednesday saying it paid for the chartered
Cessna 750X to fly Espinoza to Caracas the previous Thursday to close a
deal with PDVSA. Uzcateguy invited Antonini to join the return trip,
the statement added, hinting that the Argentines aboard did not know
Antonini.

On their return flight, customs officials in Buenos Aires found
$790,550 in cash in Antonini's valise.

Some Argentine media reports say he acknowledged he was carrying the
cash.

But a Peronist party official, Juan Ricardo Mussa, claimed he witnessed
the incident by chance and saw Uberti threaten customs agents to keep
them from checking the bag.

Argentina's customs regulations say arriving visitors must declare all
money above $10,000 -- and pay a fine of half the undeclared amount if
they don't.

Chávez, who was in Buenos Aires Sunday and Monday to sign several
agreements with Kirchner, said Monday that Antonini was not part of his
delegation and accused Washington of alleging that Antonini was an
official of his government.

Mario Silva, host of the pro-Chávez tv program La Hojilla in Caracas,
branded Antonini as ''strongly anti-Chávez'' and linked him to Isaac
Pérez Recao, another Key Biscayne Venezuelan allegedly involved in a
2002 coup against Chávez.

Silva also alleged that Antonini had business dealings with a
Miami-based arms dealer, and that his trip to Argentina was possibly
linked to military businesses in that country.

But other Caracas media reported that Antonini was doing lots of highly
profitable business deals with the oil-rich Chávez government. Public
records show he did not sign petitions for a 2004 recall vote against
Chávez.

Records show Antonini paid $606,300 for a condo in Key Biscayne in 2002
and has registered at least four companies in Florida.

A woman who described herself as the cleaning lady at his condo said
she was unaware of his detention and declined further comment.

It is not clear how much time Antonini spends in his condo.

One news media report from Caracas said he a co-driver of a Porsche
Carrera GT entered in this spring's version of the Gumball 3000 Rally,
an annual amateur rally across parts of Europe in which each driver
pays nearly $50,000 to participate.

Argentine officials have said that the cash seized from Antonini was
deposited in a bank account pending settlement of the case.

Media reports from Buenos Aires say one prosecutor is investigating
possible ''smuggling'' in the case, while the Justice Ministry is
investigating the possibility of money laundering.

                                  ***

Reuters via The New York Times - August 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-argentina-scandal.html

Suitcase of Cash Sparks New Scandal in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES - An Argentine scandal over a businessman carrying a
suitcase of cash on a government-hired jet has put President Nestor
Kirchner on the defensive as he tries to help his wife replace him at
this year's election.

Claudio Uberti, a highway official who is one of Kirchner's key
negotiators on energy deals with Venezuela, resigned on Thursday after
he allowed a Venezuelan businessman carrying almost $800,000 in
undeclared cash to travel on a jet hired by Argentine state energy
company Enarsa.

The scandal comes a month after Kirchner's economy minister was forced
to step down over more than $60,000 found stashed in a bag in her
office bathroom. Under renewed pressure, Kirchner defended his record
on Thursday.

"I don't cover up anything. When something happens the people find out
about it and we take the appropriate measures. For the first time,
Argentina is seriously fighting corruption ... whoever is involved," he
said in a public speech.

Opposition politicians, who are struggling in polls ahead of the
October 28 presidential vote, jumped on the new cash case.

"This is from God, I'm super happy. The truth has come out, and it is
proof of corruption in this government," leftist presidential candidate
Elisa Carrio told La Nacion newspaper.

First lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, a long-time senator, is
running to replace her husband as president and polls show her well
ahead of her rivals despite a series of scandals involving government
officials.

Kirchner's government is generally seen as austere and relatively clean
after the heavy spending and corruption of Argentine governments in the
1990s, but opposition leaders are now questioning that reputation.

"This reminds me of the '90s," Esteban Bullrich, a lawmaker with the
center-right PRO party, said of the new scandal.

Uberti flew to Venezuela on Saturday along with the head of Enarsa to
discuss Venezuelan oil company PDVSA's investments in Argentine energy
projects.

On the way home, three PDVSA officials, the son of a PDVSA executive
and Venezuelan businessman Guido Antonini joined the Argentines on the
jet, Enarsa said. Customs officials found the cash in Antonini's
suitcase when the group arrived.

A prosecutor said the money had been confiscated and Antonini was not
arrested and had left the country. She requested a federal judge open
an investigation into the incident on charges the man attempted to
smuggle the money into the country.

Kirchner's cabinet chief, Alberto Fernandez, said the Venezuelans
"abused the good faith of Argentine officials" by asking them to take
along a businessman with that much money.

He said the government kept quiet about the incident for a few days
despite heavy media coverage so as not to make Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez uncomfortable on a visit here earlier this week.

Chavez is a vocal left-wing critic of the United States and has close
ties to Kirchner. He has used Venezuelan petrodollars to win influence
in South America and is on a regional tour to announce energy
investments in four countries.

                                ***

AP via International Herald Tribune - August 9, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/09/america/LA-GEN-Argentina-Venezuela-Cash-Suitcase.php

Scandal over cash-stuffed suitcase creates uproar in Argentina,
Venezuela

The Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina: An Argentine official resigned Thursday after
a Venezuelan businessman was found carrying about US$800,000 (?583,00)
in undeclared cash on a government-chartered flight, the latest scandal
to rock President Nestor Kirchner's administration.

Claudio Uberti, who ran a regulatory body for Argentine toll roads, was
asked to resign after he let the businessman join an official Argentine
delegation on the flight chartered by state energy company Energia
Argentina, Planning Minister Julio De Vido said. Uberti agreed to step
down.

Argentine authorities say Venezuelan businessman Guido Alejandro
Antonini Wilson was stopped early Saturday by customs authorities at a
Buenos Aires airport after they found US$790,555 (?575,829) in one of
his suitcases.

Officials so far have given no explanation of why Antonini Wilson might
have had the cash or what sort of business he is in.

The discovery also created political waves in Venezuela, where the head
of the tax and customs agency, Seniat, said it had opened an
investigation.

Jose Vielma Mora said Venezuelan law prohibits carrying more than
US$10,000 (?7,300) in cash and such a sum should have been declared
upon leaving. He said the Venezuelans aboard the chartered flight were
not part of President Hugo Chavez's entourage during a recent visit to
Argentina.

Local reports said Antonini Wilson wasn't detained and left Argentina
on Monday. His whereabouts remained uncertain.

In Venezuela, public voter records show Antonini Wilson is registered
to vote at the Venezuelan consulate in Miami, suggesting he lives there.

Venezuelan journalists and bloggers jumped on references to an
Alejandro Antonini on the Internet, identifying him as auto racing
enthusiast. It could not be independently confirmed that they were the
same man.

Some blog sites listed Alejandro Antonini as one of the drivers who
competed in Gumball 3000 races in Europe in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, his
team's red Ferrari bore a sticker with a logo used by Chavez's
government.

The discovery of the cash-filled suitcase and subsequent resignation of
Uberti marked the latest in a series of corruption scandals
beleaguering Argentina's center-left government.

Last month, Kirchner's economy minister, Felisa Miceli, was sacked
after US$61,000 (?44,400) in Argentine and U.S. currency was found in a
brown bag in her office bathroom. Officials from a gas regulatory
agency and the public works ministry resigned earlier amid a bribery
scandal.

On Thursday, Kirchner defended his administration, vowing to get to the
bottom of events.

"I don't cover anything up. When something happens, the people find out
as they should find out and we take the corresponding measures," he
said.

Sen. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is the front-runner to succeed her
husband in the Oct. 28 presidential election. But the scandal prompted
opposition candidate Roberto Lavagna and others to call for a full
investigation.

Political analyst Rosendo Fraga said the scandals have inflicted damage
on Kirchner's government, but not enough to seriously cut into his
wife's heavy lead in most polls against a divided opposition.

"For the government, cases like these hurt without a doubt," Fraga
said. "The question is: How much damage can they really do?"

The Argentine energy company, Enarsa, has said eight passengers were
aboard the jet, including Uberti, Antonini Wilson, and three employees
of the Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA. Enarsa
said it rented the plane to fly company officials from Caracas who
worked on a natural gas supply deal with Venezuela.

                                   ***

The first story reported on August 8, 2007:

AP via The New York Times - August 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Argentina-Venezuela-Undeclared-Cash.html

Venezuelan Probed for Suitcase of Cash

The Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Argentine authorities said Wednesday
they were investigating why a Venezuelan man was carrying $800,000 in
undeclared cash aboard an executive jet charted by Argentina's state
energy company.

Venezuelan businessman Antonini Wilson was detained early Saturday by
customs authorities at a Buenos Aires airport after they found the cash
in one of his suitcases.

Wilson arrived from Caracas aboard the chartered jet with officials
from Energia Argentina SA, or ENARSA, which paid for the flight, and
Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA.

ENARSA issued a statement Wednesday saying it rented the plane to ferry
the company officials between the two capitals as they worked out the
details of a liquid natural gas supply agreement.

On Monday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela would invest
in a regasification plant for liquid natural gas for Argentina, which
is weathering an energy crisis. Chavez was in Argentina as part of a
regional tour.

The Venezuelan president later denied Argentine media reports that
Wilson was part of his delegation.

Argentine authorities said they were investigating whether Wilson
committed a simple customs violation for not declaring the cash or if
some other crime may have been committed.