meanwhile Hugo is buying the support of South American countries by offering to build refinieries and such...
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Venezuelan Probed for Suitcase of Cash
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20070808/API/708081040
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina 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.
Scandal Erupts Over Cash-Stuffed Case
Thursday August 9
By Bill Cormier, Associated Press Writer
Scandal Over Cash-Stuffed Suitcase Creates Uproar in Argentina, Venezuela
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070809/argentina_venezuela_cash_suitcase.html?.v=2
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine official resigned Thursday after a Venezuelan businessman was found carrying about $800,000 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 $790,555 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 $10,000 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.
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 fired after $61,000 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.