MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay investigates local ramifications of suitcase scandal

Alejandro Antonini the 'whistler'

Ramifications of the suitcase scandal involving Venezuela, Argentina and a Miami federal court have reached Uruguay, where a local judge has requested information from the Central Bank on accounts from some of the characters named in the trial.

Venezuelan businessman Franklin Duran, who this week was found guilty by a US federal court of acting as a foreign agent in US soil, claims that several of his business partners, including one who testified against him in Miami, had emptied banks accounts belonging to the company. His partners include Alejandro Antonini Wilson the US-Venezuelan businessman who in August 2007 was caught by Argentine Customs with a suitcase stuffed with 800.000 US dollars, allegedly a regular contribution of the Venezuelan government for the campaign of then presidential hopeful Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The other three mentioned in the case belong to a Uruguayan registered company Umissa, which sells pre-fabricated houses to the Venezuelan government (as part of the oil for goods and services exchange program established by President Hugo Chavez). They are Alejandro Grenade, Norberto Barcos and Gabriela Alcalá. The court order requests information on "suspicious" money transfers for "hundreds of thousands of US dollars" which have gone undeclared and undisclosed to Uruguayan banking and fiscal authorities. Mr. Duran who will be sentenced next January in Miami has accused the four before a Uruguayan criminal court of having associated to, in collusion, empty bank accounts belonging to the Unissa Company. Apparently millions of US dollars were wired to overseas financial institutions to joint and personal accounts. Duran also claims that funds from Umissa accounts were used to pay for Antonini's defence in Miami. The Miami federal court proved that Antonini knew nothing about the suitcase with the money before boarding the privately contracted jet (by Argentina's government energy corporation, Enarsa) from Caracas to Buenos Aires. Following the media coverage of the scandal and fearing reprisals from Venezuela and Argentina, Antonini on his return to Miami decided to collaborate with the FBI, particularly when a team of four, organized in Caracas and led by Duran, contacted him to help "cover up" the whole incident. The four were taped by Antonini working for the FBI and later accused of acting as unregistered foreign agents in the US. Duran's trial ended this week; the other three also had agreed to collaborate with the FBI. Following the end of the trial Antonini was interviewed live by CNN when he reiterated that the money in the suitcase belonged to PDVSA (Venezuela's government owned Oil Corporation) and was intended for the presidential campaign of Mrs. Kirchner. He also advanced he is willing to return to Argentina to face court action, where he is accused of money laundering and contraband. Argentina's Justice and Security minister Anibal Fernandez has described Antonini as a "hired good-for-nothing who they paid to say whatever, so anything is to be expected" and strongly denied the money busted by Argentine Customs was for Mrs. Kirchner presidential campaign. In Montevideo there are three different criminal court cases on business operations between Uruguay and Venezuela. One is in the framework of the Bolivar-Artigas Fund (millions of US dollars in oil for goods and services) and involves outstanding names and relatives of the Uruguayan left wing ruling coalition; the second is referred directly to Antonini's business operations in Uruguay as the broker for the housing project and finally Duran's claim he was swindled by his business associates.