A Venezuelan man has pleaded guilty in a scheme to cover up the source of US$800,000 in a suitcase seized in Argentina, where it was allegedly sent by Venezuelans as a donation to Cristina Fernandez's presidential campaign.
Moises Maionica, 36, on Friday admitted to acting as an unregistered foreign government agent in the US. He could be sentenced to up to 15 years for this and a related conspiracy count, but is cooperating with prosecutors and thus could get a reduced sentence.
US officials said Maionica and four others tried to hide the Venezuelan source of the cash, which was carried into Argentina in August by dual US-Venezuelan citizen Guido Antonini Wilson, now wanted by Argentina on money laundering charges.
Instead of sending Antonini Wilson back to Argentina, US investigators wired him with a recording device in Florida and gathered evidence against the alleged Venezuelan agents who pressured him to conceal the money's source, according to court documents.
Antonini was apparently a last-minute passenger on a chartered plane that also carried officials from Venezuela's state oil company. An unidentified passenger asked Antonini to carry the cash-laden suitcase through customs in Buenos Aires, prosecutors said in court on Friday.
Maionica admitted arranging calls between Antonini and a senior official in Venezuela's intelligence agency, which the FBI said it recorded. He also acknowledged that he met with Antonini and the other suspected agents: Venezuelans Carlos Kauffmann, 35, Franklin Duran, 40, and Uruguayan Rodolfo Wanseele, 40.
All have pleaded not guilty and face up to 10 years in prison and US$250,000 in fines if convicted at trial, now set for March. Another Venezuelan charged in the case, Antonio Jose Canchica Gomez, has not been found. Maionica's sentencing is scheduled for April 4.
According to the FBI, it was Duran who was recorded telling Antonini the money was for the campaign of Fernandez, who was later elected despite the scandal.
The governments of Argentina and Venezuela have bitterly denounced the US investigation as politically motivated, which the Bush administration has denied.
In Caracas, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro denied Maionica was an agent, saying "that person lies shamelessly."
"He's not an agent of our government," Maduro told reporters. "That same Venezuelan man said the opposite 15 days ago. Who knows what sort of thing, what blackmail was used to make him say just the opposite."
Ruben Oliva, Maionica's attorney, said his client had been in the US getting ready to take a cruise and got involved in the scheme after he received a call from a high-ranking Venezuelan official asking him to help Antonini Wilson.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home