Global InformationSuitcase scandal information
The Maletinazo, Valijagate, or suitcase scandal was a 2007 scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina, souring friendship between the countries.[1]
The scandal began when Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson,[2][3] a Venezuelan-US entrepreneur, arrived in Argentina on a private flight, hired by Argentine and Venezuelan state officials, carrying US$800,000 in cash which he failed to declare.
Venezuela had enacted strict foreign currency controls in 2003. CADIVI, the commission established by the Venezuelan government to regulate currency, prohibits taking more than US$10,000 in cash out of the country without declaring the money.[4] Individual Venezuelans could only take US$500 or €400 cash out of the country in a single trip and there was a yearly quota of US$2,500 on credit card expenditures; a special government permit is needed to take additional US dollars out of the country.
The scandal escalated with suggestions that: Wilson was part of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's personal entourage; the money was meant to help finance, and thus influence, the Argentine presidential candidate Cristina Fernández de Kirchner; the money was meant to bribe Argentine officials in energy deals for Venezuelan natural gas; or, the suitcase was intended for money-laundering.[5] No allegations were proven and the case was closed in 2015 due to the statute of limitations.[citation needed]
The scandal gained further notoriety when María del Luján Telpuk, the Argentine airport police officer who discovered the unreported currency, posed naked a few months later in the Argentine and Venezuelan versions of Playboy magazine.[citation needed]
The word Maletinazo comes from maletín (the Spanish word for suitcase or briefcase) and the suffix -azo which implies intensity or magnitude. The scandal is also known as Valijagate, Maletagate and Maletíngate (following the -gate construction and the Spanish word maleta or valija for suitcase or briefcase).[citation needed]
- ^ Schweimler, Daniel (14 August 2007). "Argentina probes cash-filled case". BBC News. Retrieved 14 August 2007.
- ^ Alconada Mon, Hugo (2015). La piñata : el ABC de la corrupción, de la burguesía nacional kirchnerista ... y del "capitalismo de amigos" (in Spanish). C.A.B.A. p. 94. ISBN 978-950-49-4785-1.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Lanata, Jorge (2014). 10 K : la década robada : datos y hechos en los años de la grieta (in Spanish). C.A.B.A. p. 12. ISBN 978-950-49-3903-0.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Cite error: The named reference
MercoPressStashedwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Barrionuevo, Alexei (14 August 2007). "Cash-Stuffed Suitcase Splits Venezuela and Argentina". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 August 2007.
The scandal has cast a sudden chill over the warmer ties between the countries ... María Luz Rivas Diez, the Argentine attorney general, said Mr. Antonini Wilson had made 12 trips to Argentina in the past year, some for less than a day. She told a Buenos Aires radio station over the weekend that she could not rule out money-laundering as a possible motivation, nor filing charges against Mr. Antonini Wilson, who had been allowed to leave Argentina and whose whereabouts were unknown. Though Mr. Antonini Wilson had been traveling with employees of Venezuela's national oil company, the Venezuelan government insisted that the cash found on him was a personal matter. "The responsibilities are personal,: said Pedro Carreño, Venezuela's justice minister, in comments broadcast Monday on Venezuelan radio. "If there exists a personal object, it is a suitcase."