Rafael Reiter Muñozformer head of security for the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and designated as “the suitcase” in the Antonini Wilson case – and who would have transferred the money to the plane that traveled to Argentina – would be negotiating to testify and collaborate with the United States courts.
It happens that the justice of the United States points for the first time against Rafael Ramirezformer president of Petróleos de Venezuela for allegedly accepting bribes paid by banks in Andorra and Switzerland during his tenure at the oil company.
“For years, Venezuelans have wondered if US prosecutors are targeting former oil czar Rafael Ramírez. Now, they have pointed out as an apparent cooperator one of Ramírez’s aides, former @PDVSA security chief Rafael Reiter, who has offered to testify about the corruption of Ramírez and others,” said the journalist and Latin America correspondent for Associated Press (AP), Joshua Goodman.
Trial for the Antonini Wilson case: they refuse to dismiss Julio De Vido and Ricardo Echegaray
Reiter Muñoz, considered the official’s right-hand man during his tenure at PDVSA, is on probation and a refugee in Barcelona: the United States is investigating him for alleged corruption and charging illegal commissions to favor PDVSA suppliers; while Spain is investigating him for alleged irregularities in the management of public funds.
This judicial situation would have led him to try to negotiate the benefits he would obtain if he collaborated with the investigation against Ramírez and other defendants such as Rafael Rincón, Abraham Shiera, and Paulo Jorge da Costa Casqueiro Murta, according to what he stated. The nation.
“Reiter would testify that bribery of PDVSA officials by suppliers was commonplace, and that he himself accepted bribes to further the bribery and money-laundering scheme,” said Department of Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Christopher Read. , in a document accessed by the aforementioned medium.
Rafael Reiter is mentioned in the trial that took place in Florida against businessman Antonini Wilson, in the case of the suitcase with almost 800 thousand dollars that he tried to enter through customs control at the Jorge Newbery metropolitan airport in the City of Buenos Aires, allegedly to finance the presidential campaign of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2007.
According to the testimony of the Venezuelan businessman Franklin Durán, who was imprisoned in Miami for his participation in this case, Reiter was in charge of managing and loading the suitcases with the dollars in cash, coming from PDVSA, to be transferred to Argentina.
After 16 years the trial for Antonini’s suitcase begins
Meanwhile, in our country the oral trial for the case is taking place, which has in the dock the former Minister of Federal Planning Julio De Vido, the former head of Customs Ricardo Echegaray, former head of the Road Concessions Control Body (OCCOVI) Claudio Uberti and four other defendants who were customs officials at the time: Rosa García, María Gallini, Jorge Lamastra and Guillermo Lucangeli.
The aircraft from Caracas arrived at the southern terminal of Aeroparque private flights at dawn, and came from its country of origin, Venezuela. It was a private flight contracted at that time by the state company Enarsa.
On that flight, Antonini Wilson was traveling with the former head of the Road Concessions Control Body and officials of the Road Concessions Control Body, with whom he came to Buenos Aires to participate in the presidential summit between Néstor Kirchner and Hugo Chávez: in those days It was yet to be defined who would be the Kirchnerist candidate in the presidential elections.
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