Chavez implicated in "suitcase scandal": U.S. witness

By Michael Connor

MIAMI (Reuters) - A lawyer for a defendant in the Argentine "suitcase scandal" said a U.S. government witness has sworn that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was personally involved in the affair, according to a U.S. court filing.

The government witness, Carlos Kauffmann, pled guilty in March to U.S. charges arising from the seizure of $800,000 in a suitcase in Buenos Aires and agreed to testify against former associate Franklin Duran in exchange for lighter punishment.

U.S. prosecutors have indicated that they had been told the $800,000 was intended for the election campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the former first lady who won Argentina's presidential election in October.

The case set off a torrent of corruption allegations in Argentina and raised diplomatic tensions between Washington, Caracas and Buenos Aires.

Edward Shohat, a Miami attorney for Duran, said in a court filing that Kauffmann had told FBI agents in a deposition that a third defendant had told him that Chavez had a personal role in allegedly sending the cash to Argentina.

"Based on the FBI report, Kauffmann can be expected to testify ... that co-defendant Moises Maionica told him and others that President Chavez was involved in the matter and had put (intelligence service chief Henry) Rangel Silva in charge, and that Rangel told him that President Chavez personally was involved in the matter," Duran's lawyer said in the court filing dated June 27.

Duran, a businessman scheduled to go to trial in Miami September 2 on charges of violating U.S. lobbying laws, is Venezuelan, as are Maionica and Kauffmann.

Maionica, Kauffmann and another man, Rodolfo Wanseele Paciello, have pled guilty to U.S. charges in the case. Wanseele, a Uruguayan, acknowledged in a plea deal that he helped a Venezuelan intelligence agent meet up in Miami with Venezuelan-American businessman Guido Antonini Wilson, who was stopped with $800,000 while entering Argentina last year.