Additional funds of 4.2 million reported on plane in suitcase scandal

[Bacchus39]

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/09/15/en_pol_esp_there-were-additiona_15A1987843.shtml

There were additional USD 4.2 million in Antonini's aircraft
Argentinean opposition asks for further investigation into the cash-smuggling case

The aircraft was chartered by Argentina's oil company Enarsa(Handout photo)
Politics The USD 800,000 carried by Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson and seized on August 4, 2007, at Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires, were a fraction of the money aboard an aircraft chartered by Argentinean state oil company Enarsa.

According to Argentinean newspaper La Nación, there were additional USD 4.2 million on board the chartered aircraft from Venezuela. The newspaper claims to have gotten the information from two independent sources, one of them from Caracas, Venezuela, which "have a leading role in the case filed in a federal court in Miami."

Sources assume that, like the USD 800,000 seized on August 2007, the USD 4.2 million were also earmarked to finance the presidential campaign that led to the election of Cristina Fernández de Kichner as President of Argentina.

The newspaper reported on Sunday that "the first person concerned by the fate of the money was Diego Uzcátegui, then president of the subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) in Argentina and Uruguay. According to the sources, Uzcátegui would have asked his interlocutors when he arrived in Buenos Aires, a few hours after the seizure: "What about the USD 4.2 million? Where is the money?"

"Several witnesses listened to what Uzcátegui said. But the question was directed at two of the passengers of that flight: his son, Daniel, and Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, the man who said that the money belonged to him, according to the airport's records. However, since then, Antonini has denied in the United States that he was the owner of the money."

The newspaper added that somewhere in the audio transcripts taped by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials, with the cooperation of Antonini, the word "suitcases" is mentioned in plural.

The suitcase trial is being heard in a Miami court against four alleged Venezuelan covert agents in the United States who were supposedly trying to silence Antonini in order to hide the source and destination of USD 800,000 Antonini tried to smuggle into Argentina.

Assistant US Attorney Thomas J. Mulvihill had already mentioned during an early hearing that "additional funds" would have left from Venezuela for the presidential campaign of Fernández de Kirchner. At that time, the prosecutor did not clarify whether those funds came in that flight or earlier.

The latest reports published by the Argentinean press concerning the suitcase scandal have provoked a reaction of Argentina's opposition which has demanded further investigations into the case.

[struggle4progress]

1. A friend of the uncle of the brother-in-law of a guy I met on the bus yesterday says

that when El Universal cites La Nación's paraphrasing of nameless sources more than a year after the original story broke, it means some CIA boy is trying to get a pay raise

The guy I met says his brother-in-law's uncles' friend's grandfather used to work for the Company, so this is reliable

[Bacchus39]

2. what do you think about Venezuela funding Kirchner's election in the first place?

you can go to La Nacion and find more info if you like.

here is an excerpt from the EX-police official regarding threats she received after discovering the original $800,000. she does say she did not see any additional money but this is much more chilling. more than likely she's a Nazi right???


http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1050192&pid=5068654&toi=6264


¿Qué tipo de amenazas recibió?

- De todo tipo, me llamaban por teléfono todo el tiempo, todos los días desde que yo empecé a aparecer en los medios televisivos, me decían que me callara, que la iba a pasar muy mal, hasta encontré cosas tiradas en mi casa. Lo último que encontré, que ahí me asusté e hice la denuncia, fue un ramo de flores con un cartel que decía "disfrutalas ahora, cuando estés en el cajón no vas a poder". Ahí realmente tomé conciencia de lo que me estaba pasando.

What type of of threats did you receive?

-of every kind, they called me all the time, every day since I started appearing on the television media, they told me to shut up, that it was going to be bad, even throwing things at my house. the last thing that I found that scared me, was a bouquet of floweres with a note that said "enjoy them now, because when you are in the casket you won't be able too. That's really when I realized what was happening to me."




the Nazi princess that uncovered Hugo Chavez illegal contribution to the Kirchner campaign.

[struggle4progress]

4. Your La Nacion link, of course, is a story about a security officer, who handled the original

suitcase, essentially saying she can't imagine how she could possibly have missed an (alleged) second suitcase, (allegedly) packed with even more cash: the natural conclusion might be that she missed the (alleged) second suitcase, (allegedly) packed with even more cash, because it never existed

She discovered the violation of Argentinian currency laws while working a standard airport security job: I don't know that anyone would call her a Nazi for that

Any associated anonymous threats might be hard to parse. It could be whoever lost the money, since no doubt somebody was very unhappy to lose $800 000, whatever its source and whatever the use intended for it. Or (for example) it could be one of the (all too common) petty jerks who harass anyone who gets some media attention: she clearly obtained some celebrity from discovering the cash, such as the contract with Playboy:

LA QUE ENCONTRO LOS DOLARES EN LAS VALIJAS
Posó desnuda para Playboy María del Luján Telpuk
Cuando en la madrugada del sábado 4 de agosto de 2007, María del Luján Telpuk descubrió que dentro de la valija de Guido Antonioni Wilson no había “algo de plata y unos papeles” sino casi 800 mil dólares, muchas cosas deben haber pasado por su cabeza · Muchas pero seguramente no que seis meses más tarde, posaría desnuda para Playboy ...
10 de febrero de 2008
http://www.derf.com.ar/despachos.asp?cod_des=181252&ID_Seccion=36

The natural parties, to investigate the source and purpose of the $800K, would be Argentinian. Since the courier is a US citizen, and the US won't extradite him to Argentina, one naturally suspects something strange is going on -- but I have some doubts about whether the US court case will really shed much light on the subject

[Bacchus39]

5. whatever its source?? I think that has been well established

that Chavez illegally was funding Kirchner's campaign. yes, something strange is going on indeed.

[struggle4progress]

6. ... "There is no degree of trust or credibility on either side," said Michael Shifter, vice

president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue, a research group in Washington. "It is hard to look at this trial as anything other than something that is politicized" ...

The charge against Durán and his co-defendants has raised eyebrows in legal circles because they are not charged with spying or espionage, but rather with conspiracy and with operating as agents of a foreign government, Venezuela, without first notifying the United States attorney general ...

NEWS ANALYSIS
Trial over cash-stuffed suitcase offers insight into Chávez government
By Alexei Barrionuevo
Published: September 15, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/15/america/15venez.php

[Bacchus39]

7. and that quote has no degree of credibility with me, who cares??

why don't you conduct some man on the street interviews?

[struggle4progress]

8. If there was another suitcase with $4+ millions, why wasn't it mentioned in the Federal indictment?

And why didn't the appropriate airport security find it?

No man-on-the-street interviews are necessary, because there is a natural immediate logical answer to both those questions -- and here you may want to sit down and hold firmly onto your hat -- is: Because the second money-packed suitcase never existed, except as rightwing huff-n-puff

The huff-n-puff, of course is intended to produce new excitement about the Miami trial. But the Miami trial is a strange thing: it begins with a US citizen violating Argentinian currency law and fleeing back to the US, which then refuses to extradite him to Argentina for prosecution (strongly suggesting a US covert operation)

Surely Argentina, where the original currency violation occurred, is better prepared than the US to determine exactly what crimes took place and to prosecute them: neither the violation of Argentinian currency law nor any alleged attempt to fund a political campaign in Argentina with foreign monies, constitutes a crime under American law, and the American system is not well-situated to examine such crimes and allegations in a foreign jurisdiction. In fact, the Miami court is not really investigating these allegations in any proper sense: it is judging whether the defendants acted as "unregistered foreign agents," supposedly in an effort to prevent the suitcase courier from talking to Federal investigators. But if there was no US crime involved, what original reason could the Federal investigators have, for wanting to talk to the suitcase courier? The oddity of this again suggests an intelligence connection

Reports suggest that the tapes at the Miami trial don't really prove what is alleged. One has, for example, tapes of Informant A talking to Defendant B. In these tapes claims he spoke with (say) a Venezuelan intelligence official. Whether the defendant actually spoke with Venezuelan intelligence is another question. Venezuelan intelligence might have indeed been very interested in the suitcase courier -- they might, for example, have suspected him of being a US agent or they might have hoped to recruit him as a Venezuelan agent -- so Venezuelan intelligence might indeed have spoken with some Miami trial defendants. One may then still ask whether the defendants accurately reported such conversations and (if so) whether Venezuelan intelligence was forthright with the defendants in such conversations

Since "unregistered foreign agent" has taken a rather flexible meaning in the Bush era, it is not surprising that some defendants copped pleas on advice of counsel. But it's not clear to me what this means. I do not doubt there is an interesting story here, but all indications suggest to me that the real story involves US covert operations and cat-and-mouse games between various state intelligence services


Venezuelan’s Briefcase Mystery Continues
By: UDN
Posted: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 11:29 am
(10-SEP-2008) ... S Durán’s attorney, Ed Shohat, affirmed that Antonini Wilson .. demanded a payment of USD 2 million. (El País Digital, 9 September 2008) http://www.elpais.com.uy/08/09/09/ultmo_368811.asp

[EFerrari]

3. LOL!