By David Voreacos and Carlyn Kolker
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was personally involved in covering up his nation's role in an Argentine election scandal, according to an FBI statement by a Venezuelan witness who may testify at a criminal trial in Miami.
Franklin Duran faces trial on U.S. charges he acted as an unregistered agent of Chavez's government. Duran conspired to silence a Florida businessman who toted $800,000 in a suitcase from Caracas to Buenos Aires, according to U.S. prosecutors. The Justice Department alleged the cash, seized Aug. 4, was intended for the campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who was elected Argentina's president Oct. 28.
Duran, 40, was arrested Dec. 11 with two other Venezuelans, Carlos Kauffmann and Moises Maionica. Kauffmann and Maionica pleaded guilty and said in court that their country's intelligence agency, known as DISIP, played a central role in the cover-up of the payment.
In papers filed June 27, Duran said Kauffmann's FBI statement implicated Chavez. Kauffmann told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that ``Maionica told him and others that President Chavez was involved in the matter and had put DISIP Director Rangel Silva in charge, and that Rangel told him that President Chavez personally was involved in the matter,'' according to the motion in federal court in Miami.
Previous court filings didn't directly implicate Chavez in the case, known as the ``suitcase scandal'' in Argentina. U.S. prosecutors have filed court papers saying that DISIP and the office of Venezuela's vice president oversaw the plot.
Acting as Agent
Prosecutors will use Kauffmann's testimony ``in order to prove that Duran was acting as an agent of Venezuela,'' according to the filing by Edward Shohat, Duran's attorney.
Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. A spokesman at Venezuela's information ministry in Caracas declined to comment.
Ruben Oliva, a lawyer representing Maionica, and Alicia Valle, special counsel to Alexander Acosta, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, and Jacob Denaro, a lawyer for Kauffmann, declined to comment.
Prosecutors alleged that Duran failed to register with the U.S. Justice Department before pressuring businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson to remain silent about the suitcase.
Security, Relocation
After the cash seizure, Antonini returned to Florida and began cooperating with the FBI, secretly recording conversations with Duran and other defendants. The U.S. government has paid $29,682 for security and relocation costs for Antonini, who had lived in Key Biscayne, Florida, according to an April 25 court filing.
Duran was charged along with Kauffmann, Maionica, Rodolfo Wanseele Paciello and Antonio Jose Canchica Gomez. Wanseele pleaded guilty and Canchica is considered a fugitive. Duran faces a Sept. 2 trial in Miami, where jurors may hear many of the 178 recordings made during the investigation.
In a separate motion filed June 27, Shohat quoted from the transcript of an Aug. 23 meeting at Jackson's Steak House in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, attended by Kauffmann, Antonini and Duran. Kauffmann and Duran were partners in Industrias Venoco CA, the largest privately owned petroleum company in Venezuela.
According to the court filing, Kauffmann said on the tape that their lives had been threatened, without saying who made the threats.
`Will Kill Us'
``If you think that they didn't uh, didn't threatened [sic] us that they are going to turn us into [expletive], that they will kill us, that they're going to take Venoco away from us,'' Kauffmann said on the tape, according to the motion.
``To kill?'' Antonini said.
``To kill,'' Kauffmann said. ``A shooting, lead.''
Shohat argued in the motion that Duran shouldn't be precluded from telling jurors about the threats. Prosecutors have argued in response that Shohat isn't entitled to that defense.
In the motion that discusses Chavez, Shohat said the U.S. prosecution is politically motivated and that Duran ``unquestionably acted without any intent'' to violate a registration requirement that ``he had no idea existed.''
Shohat wrote Kauffmann has an ``obvious and logical desire to curry favor'' with U.S. prosecutors to reduce any possible prison term and avoid deportation with his wife and children.
``Even if one were to believe that the U.S. government has no secret agenda to embarrass the Chavez government, Kauffmann's belief that the United States government would like to see the Chavez government embarrassed provides a strong motive for him to embellish his testimony and lie,'' Shohat wrote.
Foreign Policy
Prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard in Miami to bar references to U.S.-Venezuelan foreign policy, arguing in a June 23 motion that it would politicize the trial.
``None of the charges against Duran depend on the status of relations -- good, bad or otherwise -- between the United States and Venezuela,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Mulvihill wrote.
Shohat's motion also said he believes that prosecutors will ``introduce other evidence in this case having no real purpose but to embarrass the government of Hugo Chavez.''
On June 27, Lenard closed the courtroom to the public in a hearing about defense witness interviews in the case. The case is U.S. v. Moises Maionica, 07-cr-20999, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (Miami). To contact the reporters on this story: David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net; Carlyn Kolker in New York at ckolker@bloomberg.net
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was personally involved in covering up his nation's role in an Argentine election scandal, according to an FBI statement by a Venezuelan witness who may testify at a criminal trial in Miami.
Franklin Duran faces trial on U.S. charges he acted as an unregistered agent of Chavez's government. Duran conspired to silence a Florida businessman who toted $800,000 in a suitcase from Caracas to Buenos Aires, according to U.S. prosecutors. The Justice Department alleged the cash, seized Aug. 4, was intended for the campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who was elected Argentina's president Oct. 28.
Duran, 40, was arrested Dec. 11 with two other Venezuelans, Carlos Kauffmann and Moises Maionica. Kauffmann and Maionica pleaded guilty and said in court that their country's intelligence agency, known as DISIP, played a central role in the cover-up of the payment.
In papers filed June 27, Duran said Kauffmann's FBI statement implicated Chavez. Kauffmann told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that ``Maionica told him and others that President Chavez was involved in the matter and had put DISIP Director Rangel Silva in charge, and that Rangel told him that President Chavez personally was involved in the matter,'' according to the motion in federal court in Miami.
Previous court filings didn't directly implicate Chavez in the case, known as the ``suitcase scandal'' in Argentina. U.S. prosecutors have filed court papers saying that DISIP and the office of Venezuela's vice president oversaw the plot.
Acting as Agent
Prosecutors will use Kauffmann's testimony ``in order to prove that Duran was acting as an agent of Venezuela,'' according to the filing by Edward Shohat, Duran's attorney.
Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S., Bernardo Alvarez, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. A spokesman at Venezuela's information ministry in Caracas declined to comment.
Ruben Oliva, a lawyer representing Maionica, and Alicia Valle, special counsel to Alexander Acosta, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, and Jacob Denaro, a lawyer for Kauffmann, declined to comment.
Prosecutors alleged that Duran failed to register with the U.S. Justice Department before pressuring businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson to remain silent about the suitcase.
Security, Relocation
After the cash seizure, Antonini returned to Florida and began cooperating with the FBI, secretly recording conversations with Duran and other defendants. The U.S. government has paid $29,682 for security and relocation costs for Antonini, who had lived in Key Biscayne, Florida, according to an April 25 court filing.
Duran was charged along with Kauffmann, Maionica, Rodolfo Wanseele Paciello and Antonio Jose Canchica Gomez. Wanseele pleaded guilty and Canchica is considered a fugitive. Duran faces a Sept. 2 trial in Miami, where jurors may hear many of the 178 recordings made during the investigation.
In a separate motion filed June 27, Shohat quoted from the transcript of an Aug. 23 meeting at Jackson's Steak House in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, attended by Kauffmann, Antonini and Duran. Kauffmann and Duran were partners in Industrias Venoco CA, the largest privately owned petroleum company in Venezuela.
According to the court filing, Kauffmann said on the tape that their lives had been threatened, without saying who made the threats.
`Will Kill Us'
``If you think that they didn't uh, didn't threatened [sic] us that they are going to turn us into [expletive], that they will kill us, that they're going to take Venoco away from us,'' Kauffmann said on the tape, according to the motion.
``To kill?'' Antonini said.
``To kill,'' Kauffmann said. ``A shooting, lead.''
Shohat argued in the motion that Duran shouldn't be precluded from telling jurors about the threats. Prosecutors have argued in response that Shohat isn't entitled to that defense.
In the motion that discusses Chavez, Shohat said the U.S. prosecution is politically motivated and that Duran ``unquestionably acted without any intent'' to violate a registration requirement that ``he had no idea existed.''
Shohat wrote Kauffmann has an ``obvious and logical desire to curry favor'' with U.S. prosecutors to reduce any possible prison term and avoid deportation with his wife and children.
``Even if one were to believe that the U.S. government has no secret agenda to embarrass the Chavez government, Kauffmann's belief that the United States government would like to see the Chavez government embarrassed provides a strong motive for him to embellish his testimony and lie,'' Shohat wrote.
Foreign Policy
Prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard in Miami to bar references to U.S.-Venezuelan foreign policy, arguing in a June 23 motion that it would politicize the trial.
``None of the charges against Duran depend on the status of relations -- good, bad or otherwise -- between the United States and Venezuela,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Mulvihill wrote.
Shohat's motion also said he believes that prosecutors will ``introduce other evidence in this case having no real purpose but to embarrass the government of Hugo Chavez.''
On June 27, Lenard closed the courtroom to the public in a hearing about defense witness interviews in the case. The case is U.S. v. Moises Maionica, 07-cr-20999, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (Miami). To contact the reporters on this story: David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net; Carlyn Kolker in New York at ckolker@bloomberg.net
