Venezuelan Banker Given Asylum by US Found in Panama Papers
Source: Telesur
Venezuelan Banker Given Asylum by US Found in Panama Papers
Published 2 May 2016
Eligio Cedeño, a banker given asylum by the U.S. after he fled Venezuela in 2009 due to charges of financial corruption, has shown up in the Panama Papers.
A journalist with access to the Panama Papers has confirmed that wanted Venezuelan banker Eligio Cedeño's name appears in the Panama Papers, teleSUR has learned.
"Eligio Cedeño is in there," said the journalist in an email sent in response to an inquiry. One of the first articles about the Panama Papers had noted that Venezuelans were among those mentioned in the documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which specializes in off-shore tax shelters. "Now we're trying to figure out when he opened the accounts and what he did with them."
. . .
Cedeño, then president of the Bolivar-Banpro Financial Group, and previously the president of Banco Canarias de Venezuela, was arrested and detained in 2007 for breaking Venezuela's currency laws and engaging in illegal transactions to obtain dollars. At the time, Venezuela was battling an exchange rate being manipulated by outside factors, including the flooding of the currency market with dollars.
Read more: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuelan-Banker-Given-Asylum-By-US-Found-in-Panama-Papers--20160428-0051.html
GreydeeThos
(958 posts)Ford_Prefect
(7,927 posts)DetlefK
(16,423 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)Cedeño supported Chavez's opponents and so the government started going after him, shaking him down like the corrupt thugs they are.
Cedeno was held in jail for over 30 months "pending trial." When a judge let him out of jail, the Chavez gov put the judge in jail! Then Cedeno fled the regime.
Even the UN said that government prosecution of Cedeño was arbitrary.
Cedeno was also helping a union leader and a newspaper columnist who later also had to escape Venezuela and seek political asylum.
But don't expect Telesur to tell you any of that.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)most here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Eligio_Cede%C3%B1o#Arrest_and_release
re Telesur www.rationalwiki.org/wiki/TeleSUR
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Anyone can edit wiki.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)within the wikipage are links to the sources. Various. Check them out.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)I invented details of the trial & imprisonment of an obscure banker in Venezuela...
You having a bad day already, or what?
Scuba
(53,475 posts)You don't think that applies to you?
snooper2
(30,151 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)that poster, and by extension you, were shown to be totally wrong & a baseless time-waster. But keep flashing your cute little emoticon, it suits you well
melm00se
(4,997 posts)and in case The Guardian isn't good enough, here is the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention report itself:
Scuba
(53,475 posts)melm00se
(4,997 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)Perseus
(4,341 posts)Are you writing from Venezuela and are one of the Chavismo supporters?
Scuba
(53,475 posts)If it's opinion, it should be expressed as such. When it's presented as a claim, links are required.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)for whatever reason, "scuba" just can't fathom it
EX500rider
(10,885 posts)EX500rider
(10,885 posts)http://www.cnet.com/news/study-wikipedia-as-accurate-as-britannica/
Perseus
(4,341 posts)How much do you know that you have to ask for proof? Not that asking for proof is wrong, but you sound like you doubt.
This happens in Venezuela all the time, when you turn against the government they go after you, they have jailed so many people they most probably don't know who is in or out. Chavistas are like republicans, a bunch of lemmins, but once you stop clapping and cheering for the government you are toast, republicans throw you under the bus, but that is rhetoric, in Venezuela they throw you under a real bus and Deosdado Cabello tries to drive it.
But I will try to find out more about him, and post it.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Ever since Venezuela nationalized their oil, the American press has printed every nasty thing they can about the country, even if they have to make shit up out of whole cloth.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)Venezuela. This is, after all, a political forum.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)Watch and gives several links to press stories but they all appear to be foreign news sources. Not so easy eh?
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Denial is not a healthy state.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)They're publishing articles based on the conclusions of a respected human rights organization. That's a long way from just making shit up.
I suppose you think that the American press just makes shit up out of whole cloth about climate change because they base their articles on conclusions from the United Nations. I'll bet you could even find an article by the climate deniers debunking those conclusions too.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Akicita
(1,196 posts)United Nations conclusions on climate change. Just because some climate denier group publishes an article criticizing the UN conclusions doesn't mean the American media is making shit up out of whole cloth by accurately reporting the UN conclusions.
In the same way the American media is not making shit up out of whole cloth if they accurately report the conclusions of a respected human rights group. Even if some obscure group publishes an article supposedly debunking the HRW conclusions.
Could the HRW be wrong? Sure. Could the UN be wrong? Sure. History shows that anybody could be wrong. That does not mean the American media is making shit up by reporting their conclusions.
And you still have not provided documentation that the American media makes shit up out of whole cloth about Venezuela(see post#22).
All you did was post some article by some group criticizing HRW conclusions that has nothing to do with American media Then you CLAIM that American media publishes HRW results. No documentation of that. Feeble, feeble, feeble.
Even if the HRW results are inaccurate the American media did not make them up.
EX500rider
(10,885 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)& you accuse others of being in denial?
Perseus
(4,341 posts)and it doesn't help when you want to express yourself with a tube in your mouth.
The worst thing that has happened to Venezuela is Chavez and his gang of thieves.
What happened to this banker is what always happens with that regime, while he was supporting the regime he was allowed to rob as much as he wanted and could, but the moment he turned against them he was chased like a witch, and put in jail.
The judge, who acted under the law, let him out because there was no substantial proof against him, not that they could not have found it because the guy IS a thief as well, but because the government had turned its head the other way while they were friends, and because the regime feels it doesn't need proof to put anyone in jail, they missed that important part, so there was no evidence to keep him in jail.
He was free and flew right to Miami, where all the Venezuelan thieves now reside, which is unfortunate because there are a lot of Venezuelans who also live in Miami who are honest and an asset to the USA, but anyway...he is there.
The regime, seeing their incompetence in not having provided evidence and the guy in Miami by now, took it on the judge and put her in jail where she almost died of cancer.
That is it in a nutshell...If you want proof then go and get it, it will do you good to do your own research instead of waiting for other people to do it for you. You have a choice, you accept my story, or research it yourself.
EX500rider
(10,885 posts)Wilpert stated in a 2007 interview that the site had received funding from the Venezuelan government's Ministry of Culture.
Wilpert's wife Carol Delgado was named Consul General of Venezuela in New York in 2008.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelanalysis.com
Yes they sound very neutral....lol
EX500rider
(10,885 posts)Really, since that happened way back in the 1970's.
And the majority of oil producing countries have nationalized their oil, the US could't care less.
MisterFred
(525 posts)Telesur didn't produce the Panama Papers.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)an unnamed journalist sent an email to Telesur saying he/she saw someone's name in the Panama Papers. Right.
Pro tip: No actual journalist worth the moniker would operate that way. And no reputable news org would take such "evidence" and run a headline like this. That's actually worse journalism than what FOX News tries to foist up on the public.
MisterFred
(525 posts)American journalism operates like that all the time. Not only that, but this article goes out of its way to note that nothing illegal had yet been found. Just that accounts existed - not what they were for.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)fasttense
(17,301 posts)That poor banker is so abused. Bankers all over the world had to be bailed out for their own stupidity. Except this extra special rich banker. And then the government makes them follow a handful of rules and now they are being imprisoned for no apparent reason. Now that he is free, he immediately runs away to the US, so all the uber rich bankers here can help him out. Because I don't think Obama has turned down a single banker when they come with their hat in hands and need help.
Those Poor, Poor bankers who only stand up for the People's rights to earn more and more money. They just want to be left alone to bank in peace. They never interfere with politics, they never bribe people they never use lobbyist to bribe politicians and make other people suffer. Those poor, poor bankers.
LiberalLovinLug
(14,178 posts)Sad to see uhnope and others on a supposedly progressive board desperately defending the world oligarchy. How can anyone think, just based on history alone, that the worlds banks, oil industry, and wealthiest class that controls it, would NOT put up some kind of fight, both overt and covert, to destabilize and discredit the socialist government in Venezuela? Especially when they saw Chavez as inspiring other SA countries like Bolivia to vote in a people's candidate.
Poor poor bankers.
lakeguy
(1,640 posts)trying to escape justice.
dembotoz
(16,864 posts)uhnope
(6,419 posts)do you know how many asylum seekers have been helped out by the usa? It certainly numbers in the hundreds of thousands... People escaping fascist and Communist dictatorships, persecution for their gender or religion, Sharia laws, anti-gay death squads... don't shit on that
Akicita
(1,196 posts)the asylum seekers are fleeing a crisis caused by US intervention or oppression from a regime supported with US aid.
So the US causes displacement and chaos for millions in Iraq, for instance, and then gets to claim credit for 'helping' the Iraqis who flee there for relief?
This is a prime example of 'thinking' that results from the contortions of logic required to deal with cognitive dissonance.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)This is not about him needing sanctuary. This is about him wanting to keep his money safe.
The USA's new motto: No banker left behind. Nations, cities, the middle class, that have shrunk down to a minority, not so much help for them. But bankers? They are always greeted with open arms.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)fleeing gang violence in Guatemala were all Ritchie Rich type kids. Were the Vietnamese boat people really all shipping magnates?
ronnie624
(5,764 posts)were a result of one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the 20th century, caused directly by the US invasion of Indochina, a blatant act of aggression. That horror show eclispses any 'good' done in its aftermath.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)in WWII was caused by Germany and the Soviet Union invading Poland and not directly by the US invasion of Europe.
ronnie624
(5,764 posts)years before Vietnam "invaded" itself. The country was partitioned by The Geneva Accords in 1954.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)Hardly an invasion force I'll bet.
ronnie624
(5,764 posts)to a population who, by a vast majority, was opposed to US intervention in their country.
You operate under the assumption that the US has a moral imperative to act in any manner it chooses, in the world. I, on the other hand, think that people in a given country, should be entitled to determine for themselves through the democratic process what is in their best interest, which, by the way, Vietnam was just about to do, until the US intervened to stop it.
Akicita
(1,196 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)It's sad to see there are any people in this country who crave spilling blood of other people the way some of these couch bullies do.
The pattern has almost always been to send in advisors, etc. first. Here's the start of a timeline on the invasion of VietNam:
Timeline of U.S. Involvement in Vietnam Conflict
1950 First shipment of American military aid to the French colonial administration in Vietnam arrives
1955 President Eisenhower sends first military advisors to South Vietnam to train the South Vietnamese Army
1956 At French exit the US Military Assistance Advisor Group (MAAG) assumes full responsibility for training South Vietnamese forces
1959 First two Americans are killed during a Viet Minh guerillas strike at Bien Hoa
1961 President Kennedy sends 100 Special Forces troops to South Vietnam
More:
http://mahargpress.com/wounded/additional-material/timeline-of-vietnamconflict/
ronnie624
(5,764 posts)It's very interesting.
https://chomsky.info/19850319/
dembotoz
(16,864 posts)it wonderful that other immigrants get in to
but the line is shorter if your wallet is fuller
MisterP
(23,730 posts)they got bailed out and got the government to back up all deposits--then sent the bailout money out of country and flew away to party until some president pardoned them: Caracas got left with paying twice over for the assets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_banking_crisis_of_1994
Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)This is some interesting news to hear for the first time! This was well before Hugo Chavez took office in 1999.
Tiny article on the subject:
Venezuela Drops Bankers' Charges
Published: September 8, 1999
CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept. 7 Judges have thrown out the charges against 24 bankers in one of Latin America's biggest banking scandals, prompting protests from Venezuelans who say the justice system is riddled with corruption.
Authorities announced plans today to investigate the ruling and urged the Constitutional Assembly to speed reforms of the judicial system.
On Friday, Judges Carmen Elena Penaccio and Arnoldo Echegaray dismissed the charges, which included allegations against executives at three major banks -- Banco Latino, Banco Consolidado and Banco de Venezuela -- as well as at the smaller Bancor.
About 200 bankers fled the country after a banking crisis in 1994 led the Government to take over 18 banks and financial institutions.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/08/world/venezuela-drops-bankers-charges.html
Wow! Thank you.
I'll bet they all ran to Florida, too, like so many Latin American right-wing criminals who are US-friendly. What a swamp, literally and otherwise.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)you really should be ashamed of the way you think there is some justice happening in Chavez/post-Chavez Venezuela just because some "bankers" are uncomfortable too. Any dictator can make bankers uncomfortable
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/world/americas/colombians-flee-venezuelas-crackdown-on-immigrants.html?_r=0
http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-has-deported-thousands-of-colombians-2015-4
Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)Have they fled to their 2nd or 3rd homes they keep in Florida, like the oligarchic scum from Caracas, etc.?
You're not going to fool anyone who has the ambition required to do his/her own research.
There's someone who should be ashamed, there's absolutely no doubt at all about that.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)Or is it more likely these people are attempting to evacuate a house during a flood or something?
Not that many people have policemen helping them carrying their belongings around.
What is it you're attempting to accomplish?
Don't you know progressive Democrats tend to read and research, and don't easily swallow silliness?
uhnope
(6,419 posts)Patricia Helves, 19, sat on the riverbank nursing her 11-month-old baby. Ms. Helves, a Colombian married to a Venezuelan bus driver, said that she had walked across the river fearing that she would be deported if she stayed. Her husband carried the family belongings over.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/world/americas/colombians-flee-venezuelas-crackdown-on-immigrants.html?_r=0
But it's not in Telesur so it can't be true, I guess...
Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)saving them for something I think I should see, if that's even possible from the NY Times.
As you may have noticed, they've been a corporate "news" outlet for many years now, for sure since the ridiculous days of George W. Bush, and that grotesque Judy Miller, not to mention their three phony Latin American "journalists."
I take a long hard look at anything I see from them, especially if it was written after George W Bush was selected.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)from Venezuela because the NYT reported it?
You say you "take a long hard look at anything I see from" the NYT, but you obviously don't take a hard look at all at reports from Telesur & Venezuelanalysis, two overtly biased (overtly state-funded) sources that you post from often, always in support of the former Chavez gov and current Venezuela gov. Don't you see that as a paradox for your credibility?
What about the other link, http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-has-deported-thousands-of-colombians-2015-4 ????
It's full of links to Spanish-language news sources.
Since you seem to focus on this region very specifically, how is it possible you hadn't even heard anything about this news before, as evidenced by your post #59? I am really curious about that.
Judi Lynn
(160,656 posts)as the "news"paper says officials said there were more than 1,000. That's ONE thousand, ONE.
We have been reading for years and years and years about Colombians moving to both Venezuela AND Ecuador, and Venezuela was very decent about taking them in, and taking care of them for ages, until the right-wing death squads started bringing in more violence than they could handle.
One very clear example was over 100 Colombian paramilitaries which came across the border and lived at a ranch owned by Roberto Alonso, not too far from Caracas. Following up on a tip, the Venezuelan government discovered these creeps living in quanset huts on the property, with uniforms, and the plans to hold up a national guard armory and steal enough weapons to arm one thousand people, and proceed on to Miraflores, where they would kill Chavez. This was revealed in interrogations with the men, some of whom had been members of the Colombian military, at one time. After they were captured, and the truth determined, Hugo Chavez and Alvaro Uribe had a meeting which lasted over 3 hours, and during that meeting Uribe apologized for this nasty situation.
Here's one article I just located regarding this situation:
Venezuela's Chavez pardons Colombian prisoners accused in plot
By Fabiola Sanchez
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:11 p.m. August 30, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez on Thursday pardoned dozens of Colombians imprisoned in Venezuela on charges of involvement in an alleged 2004 plot against his government.
The order to free the 41 prisoners took effect with its publication in the government's official gazette, dismissing their convictions on charges of military rebellion.
Chavez announced his decision to free the prisoners last week as a goodwill gesture during his efforts to help broker an unrelated prisoner and hostage exchange between Colombia's government and leftist rebels.
In May 2004, 118 Colombians were arrested at a ranch outside Caracas. Authorities said they were wearing Venezuelan military uniforms and were suspected of belonging to paramilitary group that was plotting to create chaos in the country and assassinate Chavez.
. . .
Chavez said last week that the pardon applied to all the Colombians except those implicated in the death of a man whose body was found buried near the ranch.
Chavez was preparing to travel to Colombia on Friday for talks with President Alvaro Uribe on his offer to help facilitate an exchange of hundreds of imprisoned rebels for about 45 hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
More:
http://legacy.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/world/20070830-1511-venezuela-colombia.html
More info:
Alleged Colombian Paramilitaries
On May 9, 2004, Venezuelan police raided a ranch in Buruta, on the outskirts of the capital Caracas, arresting fifty-five Colombian men. The ranch was owned by Roberto Alonso, a Cuban exile active in the anti-Castro and a leader of the Venezuelan opposition group Bloque Democrático Shortly thereafter, they arrested 71 more at the neighboring ranch owned by Gustavo Cisneros, a Cuban-Venezuelan Chávez opponent. Venezuela reported that one of the detainees said they had been offered 500,000 Colombian pesos to work on the farm, before being informed upon their arrival that they would have to prepare for an attack on a National Guard base, with the goal of stealing weapons to potentially arm a 3,000-strong militia. <1>
According to other detainees and the Colombian families of many of them, most of those arrested were apparently unemployed poor peasants, some from the Cúcuta area, many of whom had at some point in their lives done military service in Colombia and thus qualified as reservists. They'd have been promised to work in Venezuela but were later betrayed <2>.
The families of 68 detainees announced to the Colombian press in June 2004 their intention of travelling to Venezuela to argue for their relatives freedom, claiming that they fell to a setup. <3>. Another relative told the Venezuelan opposition press that the prisoners were being mistreated while in captivity <4>. The official press reported a government denial of this claim.
The family of a Venezuelan National Guard Captain arrested and accused of being implicated in the supposed paramilitary plot likewise denounced in the opposition press the possibility of a political persecution against those that would not share the Venezuelan revolutionary process. He was said not to be recognized when he was presented to the Colombian detainees.<5>.
Some women and underaged children were also included among those captured suspected paramilitaries. The latter were speedily repatriated to Colombia by Venezuelan authorities <6>. The alleged paramilitaries were caught wearing Venezuelan Army uniforms and apparently had a single gun in their possession in the immediate area. At least two (other sources speak of between three and five) suspected paramilitary commanders were also reported to be in custody.
. . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daktari_Ranch_affair
[center]
Improvised observation post at the farm where Colombian paramilitaries
were captured last Sunday.
Credit: Carlos Rios - Radio Nacional de Venezuela
Barracs at the property of opposition activist Robert Alonso located
in the outskirts of Caracas. Colombian paramilitaries lived there for
46 days in preparation for attacks on military bases.
Credit: Carlos Rios - Radio Nacional de Venezuela[/center]
I thought you were trying to claim actual Venezuelan citizens were "fleeing" Venezuela. That wasn't the case, was it?
Don't you ever take the time to follow what is happening? Don't you have any grasp of what has been going on?
If you made any effort at all, to start paying attention, and researching, you would see things in a totally different way. You would not be a reactionary, you would have some degree of awareness, it would change your life.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)you never answered why the NYTimes is suspect but Telesur & "Venezuelanalysis" are okay, despite their overt bias & government sponsorship