Four arrested in Miami in Argentine cash scandal

By Jim Loney

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. authorities arrested three Venezuelans and an Uruguayan who allegedly tried to cover up a scandal of $800,000 in cash sent by Venezuela to Argentina to finance a political campaign, officials said on Wednesday.

The four men were arrested on Tuesday night and charged with failing to register with the United States as agents of a foreign government -- Venezuela. They face 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, U.S. federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Venezuela denounced the arrests as a Washington campaign to destroy its relations with Argentina.

The scandal broke in August when Argentine customs agents seized $800,000 in cash found in the suitcase of Venezuelan-American businessman Guido Antonini Wilson when he arrived at an airport in Buenos Aires.

Antonini, who lives in Florida, was flying with Argentine and Venezuelan government officials on a jet chartered by the Argentine government.

After Antonini abandoned the cash and returned to Florida, Venezuelan agents held a series of meetings with him there to pressure him to conceal that the Venezuelan government was the source of the money, according to an FBI affidavit.

U.S. federal prosecutors said in a statement that the Venezuelans were "operating illegally in South Florida as agents of foreign powers."

Moises Maionica, 36, Rodolfo Edgardo Wanseele Paciello, 40, Franklin Duran, 40, and Carlos Kauffmann, 35, were arrested. Another man, Antonio Jose Canchica Gomez, 37, was also charged but remained at large.