Will Venezuela erase a murder conviction in the Antonini case?

Will Venezuela erase a murder conviction in the Antonini case?
3 January 2008

Corrupt officials within the Venezuelan government, intent on damage control in the Antonini money laundering scandal, are reportedly in the process of placing a large bribe with a senior appellate judge, to illegally erase the murder conviction of Walter Alexander del Nogal, the reputed supervisor of Antonini's multiple money laundering operations in Argentina.

Del Nogal, who is a senior advisor to DISIP, is presently in custody in Italy, arrested under an order of the Anti-Mafia Magistrate, pursuant to allegations that he was engaged in narcotics trafficking, including the sale of cocaine, with the Sicilian Mafia.

He is also a fugitive from justice in Switzerland, having escaped whilst serving a sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering, several years ago.

Do they really think an illegal act by a court will rehabilitate this career criminal in the eyes of the public?

This week's developments demonstrate that desperate measures are being undertaken by corrupt officials to divert the public's attention from the issues of endemic governmental corruption that were revealed in the Antonini scandal.

The government's obvious attempt to use the publicity surrounding the efforts to secure the release of three hostages held by the FARC having failed, it is now looking to abuse the judicial system: Military sources in Venezuela have reported that an illegal payment will be offered to Judge Alfonso Dugarte, of the Court of Appeal, to set aside the convictions of del Nogal [UID 441491] and co-defendant Ramiro Helmeyer Quevedo [UID 441490], who were found guilty of killing Mario Patty Fajardo, by throwing him out of an aircraft flying over the Caribbean in 1995.

President Chavez issued a pardon for both defendants. Helmeyer, also a DISIP advisor, is a fugitive from justice in the United States, having fled a federal firearms charge; he was later indicted on the charge of Escape in US District Court in Georgia.

* Helmeyer is also reported to have been the terrorist who disrupted the Caracas financial district in 1993 with six bomb attacks, having received the explosives from dissident Venezuelan Military officers linked to Hugo Chavez Frias.

The grounds alleged to vacate the conviction are that the deceased is not only still alive, but a fugitive from justice in Valencia where he as been charged with auto theft. The proponents of this scheme have stated that Patty has been seen alive, and court documents have reportedly been forged, with sufficient supporting facts created, to falsely document the bogus criminal charges.

The fact that Patty has not been seen since he was seen falling into the Caribbean thirteen years ago does not seem to have bothered the plotters, who allegedly include the highest-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior, which supervises the judiciary, who is reportedly instructing the ranking judge of the Circuit Court, Magistrate Eladio Ramon Aponte Aponte [UID 318820], on this matter.

Should this bogus legal maneuver be successfully completed during the coming week, then the man whom most experts believe orchestrated a complex money laundering scheme in Argentina last year will be free of his homicide conviction.

Is this a case of governmental corruption stepping in to pervert the criminal justice system in furtherance of a money laundering cover-up?

You decide, but as for me, I wonder if all this trouble is to convince an imprisoned Walter del Nogal that he is better off not cooperating with the authorities in Italy, for he probably could bring down a government if he talked.

* United States vs. Helmeyer, Case Nos. 82-cr-00220, 00355 (N.D. Ga.)

http://www.world-check.com/articles/2008/01/03/wil-venezuela-erase-murder-conviction-antonini-cas/

Will the Antonini/Del Nogal money laundering scandal bring down the Venezuelan government?

Financial Crime Consultant, for World-Check

by Kenneth Rijock

Mr. Rijock, age 59, is a Financial Crime Consultant based in Miami.
More about the Author
Will the Antonini/Del Nogal money laundering scandal bring down the Venezuelan government?
21 October 2007
For those readers who want to learn the latest developments in the Argentinean-Venezuelan money laundering case, we have summarised them below. Denial seem to be the order of the day for the Venezuelan government, which appears to be under extreme pressure to take legal action against Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson and Alex Del Nogal, both of whom are not just linked to governmental officials, as has been claimed, but are employed by the Venezuelan government. Is this case Venezuela's Watergate?
To update you on this unfolding story:
The Venezuelan government has announced that it is taking steps to seize and freeze all assets of Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson,[UID 684165] wanted in Argentina, in connection with money laundering and Walter Alexander "Alex" Del Nogal [UID 441492], in custody in Italy due to an arrest warrant for narcotics trafficking issued by a Palermo magistrate investigating Mafia narcotics operations. No actual asset seizures have been reported, however, and it remains to be seen whether this announcement was intended to pacify the growing outrage being expressed by many Venezuelans over the growing scandal over what is known there as "valijagate" (Suitcasegate).
Government agents ransacked Del Nogal's home, ostensibly looking for incriminating documents, but questions are being raised as to whether it was a pretext for destruction of evidence linking Del Nogal with high-ranking government officials. Other sources claim there was outright theft of some of Del Nogal's possessions by these agents.
Governmental press releases have claimed that Del Nogal has been released, and was on his way back to his native Venezuela, but the Italian government, who is holding him, has not released him, and opposition leaders are pointing to this as an example of intentional disinformation, to mislead the Venezuelan public.
There are allegations out of Venezuela that Del Nogal is engaged in substantial petroleum business in Panama, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Argentina.
Whilst Antonini has not, as of this date, been extradited from the US to face charges in Argentina, His close associate, Franklin Duran, has been seen driving into his multi-million dollar Key Biscayne Mashta Island mansion, under close surveillance from a Land Rover packed with four men in business suits. It is unknown whether these are bodyguards, or US law enforcement agents following him around Miami.
Del Nogal has been identified, by a high-level Colombian narcotics figure in currently in custody in that country, as the primary money laundering player in Venezuela. Will he now be indicted in Colombia?
Venoco President Carlos Kaufmann [UID 239412] has reportedly fled Venezuela altogether, and is presently living in his castle in Italy. Our readers will recall that Antonini has business cards identifying himself as a vice president of Venoco, though he resides in the US, and he apparently has no duties at the company. Venoco mysteriously holds a monopoly upon petroleum lubricants in Venezuela, and is believed to be a de facto government-controlled corporation with close links to officers at PdVsa, the government petrochemical giant.
Del Nogal has been reportedly linked to other senior PdVsa executives in questionable activities that seem to indicate money laundering operations, and we shall publish these details as soon as verification of this information can be obtained.
There has been no explanation offered as to exactly why Del Nogal took eleven trips to Argentina, and the question pesists: why is the Argentinian prosecutor who seeks Antonini silent on Del Nogal?
Photographs taken at a recent birthday party at Del Nogal's Caracas residence show that reputed senior members of the Sicilian Mafia who reside in Venezuela attended that function. We shall continue to monitor this story, including a follow-up report on Del Nogal's Italian indictment, and details of the PdVsa connection.

http://www.world-check.com/articles/2007/10/21/antoninidel-nogal-money-laundering-scandal-intensi/