Venezuelan government denies link to cash-filled suitcase scandal

ap on San Diego Union - Tribune ^ | 8/10/07 | Fabiol Sanchez - ap

[NormsRevenge]

CARACAS, Venezuela – The Venezuelan government on Friday denied any link to a businessman who was stopped at an Argentine airport carrying a suitcase filled with nearly $800,000 in cash.

The Venezuelan businessman, Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, carried the money from Caracas to Buenos Aires on a flight chartered by the Argentine government, and the undeclared funds were seized by customs agents last weekend.

“We don't have anything to do with that plane or with that trip ... nothing to do with that businessman,” Venezuelan Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas told reporters.

The incident has shaken the Argentine government, prompted one Argentine official to resign and led Venezuelan authorities to launch investigations. Officials so far have given no explanation as to why Antonini Wilson might have had the cash or what sort of business he is in.

Antonini Wilson was accompanied on the flight last Saturday by Argentine officials and three employees of Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, also president of PDVSA, said the company will investigate – adding to a probe already begun by Venezuela's customs agency.

“It's an irregular situation and it's being evaluated,” Ramirez said. He also criticized media reports suggesting links between the money and PDVSA, calling them a “public lynching of our institution” without proof.

Antonini Wilson was accompanied on the flight early Saturday by Argentine officials and three PDVSA employees.

The scandal over the suitcase full of cash was the latest to rattle Argentine President Nestor Kirchner's government in an election year. His wife, Sen. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, is the front-running candidate to succeed him in the Oct. 28 vote.

Antonini Wilson, meanwhile, told the Argentine daily La Nacion he is eager to set the record straight.

“I'm very interested in this, in explaining all of this,” he was quoted as saying. He spoke by phone Thursday to a reporter who sought to interview him at his Miami condominium complex, saying he was speaking by cell phone from Argentina where he was meeting with his lawyers.

Asked about the origin of the cash, he declined further comment.

Associated Press writer Bill Cormier in Buenos Aires, Argentina contributed to this report.

[Cindy]

Thanks piasa.

[Fedora]

Thanks, piasa!