Chavez wants US to ID money laundering suspects

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

May 19, 8:24 PM EDT
Chavez wants US to ID money laundering suspects
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ
Associated Press Writers

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela will ask U.S. authorities to hand over information about brokers suspected of laundering money through the South American nation's parallel currency market, President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday.

Chavez referred to a case in which 16 people were indicted in the United States on charges of laundering at least $7 million in drug trafficking profits through exchanges of Venezuelan currency for U.S. dollars.

Chavez said he believes some of the suspects are Venezuelans, and he suggested some could be linked to the dozens of brokerage firms in Venezuela that have been accused of violating currency trading regulations.

"Have them give us their names," Chavez instructed his foreign minister during a televised speech. "There are no untouchables here."

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_VENEZUELA_CURRENCY_CONTROLS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-05-19-20-24-39

[Kringle]

1. Ven. currency laws do not apply in the US .nt

[JackRiddler]

2. It's up to the US to decide whether to assist in this criminal investigation.

[cstanleytech]

6. Just wondering (not a lawyer after all) but can the US legally do so under US

law, assuming they want to do so of course.

[JackRiddler]

7. If they want to, they can investigate.

An accusation of money laundering is raised. If the accused entities are operating in the US, they may be enaging in criminal activity here as well. It's at the discretion of American authorities whether and how far they follow the leads.

[EFerrari]

3. But they do in Venezuela and there are open cases there. n/t

[troubledamerican]

4. Remember 11/5/08 when Evo prematurely warned Obama re Bolivian evidence of DEA trafficking? Whoops

I hope Chavez is smart enough to drop the grandstanding and build a RICO-type case against the U.S.

By asking for U.S. help here, I'm not sure he's going in the right direction.

[JackRiddler]

8. Please source...

I don't know about this story.

[troubledamerican]

9. Agence France-Presse, 11/6/08, link

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/DEA_encouraged_drug_trade_says_Morales_1106.html

Evo made it public a little too quickly. Should've waited to hand evidence to Obama personally, under the table.

At minimum, he trusted Obama too quickly, and would've had the goods on Obama to spill to the world if Obama escalated against Bolivia.

Evo the good, a little bit too good.

[Judi Lynn]

10. No doubt that would have gotten a far better result (I hope!).

Thanks for reminding DU'ers of this information. This is an excellent link.

[troubledamerican]

11. Thank YOU, Judi Lynn, for your tireless work here on DU

[Wilms]

5. Sure seems the democratically elected President of VZ is being a responsible international partner.

[Imajika]

12. Parallel currency market?

What is that exactly? What countries have this parallel currency market?

[hack89]

14. They are unofficial currency exchanges

that the citizens will create when the central government can't meet the demand for foreign currencies - dollars in this case.

Here is a good article that explains how they fit into Venezuela's economy.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-18/venezuela-to-set-currency-trading-band-merentes-says-update3-.html

[unkachuck]

13. "There are no untouchables here."

....the democratically elected President of Venezuela deserves our full cooperation and support....