"Mornings, Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson would sit at a table in the Key Biscayne Don Pan bakery for coffee and cachitos, a Venezuelan ham-filled roll. It had been his father, Don Guido's (!) routine at the Corazón de Jesús bakery in La Victoria, in Venezuela's Aragua state...
Antonini must yearn for those days of peaceful anonimity on an island of ten thousand where people aren't interested in their neighbor's past.
Argentinian, Venezuelan, U.S. and Uruguayan -at a minimum- justice and media have been searching for this man to clear up a two-week old mystery.
The mystery of the intended destination of a suitcase containing $790,550 in cash that was seized from him after his arrival in an executive jet at Buenos Aires' Jorge Newbery airport in the early morning of August 4th. His silence has been so extended that speculation regarding the secret he's keeping have grown with each passing day. There's talk about a campign contribution to the presidential campaign of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner; of an arms deal and a bribery payment; others say it's only the intercepted portion of a million-dollar level cash transfer.
The only thing certain people who are familiar with Antononi and his charcter are sure of is that he's not the brains behind the sophisticated operations attributed to him."Alejandro -hardly anyone calls him Guido- is like the good ole' barrio boy, the jolly fat man, whom you'd send off to do mischief and would never refuse", said one of his acquaintances who asked not to be identified.
Up to this point, the Affair of the Suitcase has led to the firing of several high level figures in the Argentine and Venezuelan petroleum industries, and the Argentine press asserts that the matter tainted the launch of Cristina Fernández's -the wife of the President of Argentina- campaign in Luna Park last week.
President Hugo Chávez's administration, which initially attributed the scandal to
CIA dirty tricks in cahoots with Venezuela's non-governmental media, has had to accept that it amounts to a "not very important...but inescapable" matter, according to VIce-President ( and former head of the elections oversight board) Jorge Rodríguez.
Based on eyewitness accounts, documents, interviews with sources and journalists as well as on material published in those countries closely following this case, El Nuevo Herald retraces the timeline of the Antonini fiasco and details the people who accompanied him, as well as those who've surrouned the entrepreneur these past few years.
Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson was born April 8, 1961 in La Victoria. His mother,
Beverly Wilson, is a 67-year-old American citizen. They say that Guido Alejandro
got his height from his 5'6" mom. Antonini is brown-complexioned, portly and corpulent. "He's like a (barrel)!! (I was stunned) at how fat that guy's gotten." said a neighbor to Argentina's La Nacion's correspondent, in La Victoria.
Of his character it's said that he's a likeable, unassuming man not given to intellectual pursuits.
Mis mother is listed as being a resident of Atlanta,GA; her driver's license lists
a first-floor apartment on Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne as her most recent address.
Guido's father, Don Guido, an engineer turned politician, was president of Victoria
Consejo Municipal ( city council) and likewise lives in Miami. Antonini apparently finished high school but didn't graduate college.
He and Jacqueline Regnault Palacios, listed in Miami-Dade County registrar's documents
as an attorney, were married on November 30, 1991 . On June 17, 2005 Regnault received a power-of-attorney to represent Franklin Durán, a Venezuelan friend and associate of Antonini's, in the sale of #902, Bel-Aire on The Ocean Condominiums in Key Biscayne.
At least three people interviewed by El Nuevo Herald state that Durán is one of Antonini's friends with the most influence over him. Durán, who turns 40 next month, is described as an intelligent businessmane, discrete, taken with luxury automobiles. He's the registered owner of a yellow 2005 Porsche Boxster and a same model year boat, at the address of Key Biscayne's most photographed residence in the past days: A white, two-story, white structure on Mashta Dr. with canal views, valued at $3,900,000.00. This address appears on documents recording joint Antonini and Durán corporation/business.
Durán is connected with two lucrative fields: arms and the petroleum industry.
According to a judgment by the Supreme Court of the state of Vargas, Venezuela,
Durán in 2002 imported into Venezuela, through his Ruibal y Durán company, 73 Israelí UZI submachineguns, intended for the Cojedes state police. Venezuelan authorities searched the shipment for supposed contraband, but the court dismissed the case in October 2004
On the petroleum front, Durán is linked with Venezuelan company Perforaciones Albornoz (Perfoalca) which has several contracts with government-owned oil company
PDVSA. Another shareholder in Perfoalca is Carlos Kauffman, a friend of Antonini.
Some residents of La Victoria told correspondents for La Nación and Venezuela's El Universal that Antonini permanently moved to Miai 15 years ago.
The first automobile registered to him in Florida is a Toyota truck purchased in 1994, his address stated as 575 Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne. In May of that year
he acquired a 1989 BMW, and in June he incorporated one of his most active companies: Venuz Suply(sic), Inc. That same year his wife obtained her real estate broker's license. The following year the couple bought a unit at 141 Crandon Boulevard (Key Colony), for $234,000. Antonini's life apparently was tranquil. His record only shows a charge for boating in a no-trespass zone. Aside for his mortgage, hi s only other debt was with Mayor's jewelers.
In those years, those who knew him say, Antonini was on the prowl for any business, big or small, from which he could profit as a middleman: he exported new and used tires to Venezuela, he sold spare parts for cars and trucks, and he was getting his start in exporting weapons and security materials to Venezuela.
Meanwhile, his wife sold houses and condos, especially to Venezuelans who wanted to invest in South Florida.
From all indications, business boomed with the rise to power of president Hugo Chávez and the petroleum windfall that Venezuela has enjoyed these past few years. In August 2001 the Antoninis registered as their residence # 807 The Mark on Brickell, 1155 Brickell Bay Drive. One year later they purchased, for $606,300.00 #301 Lake Villa One, in the Ocean Club condominium. Antonini is also listed as the owner of #305 Key Biscayne Ambassador condominium, a much more modest building, dating from 1975 on the island's main drag, Crandon Boulevard.
In that same year he incorporated Defensa y Tecnología in Venezuela for the "sale, distribution, exportation and importation of military and law enforcement weaponry" accordingto Caracas' El Mundo.
Throughout 2003 Antonini increased his portfolio with the creation of Global Ads Corp in Florida, and the founding, with Wladimir Abad ( a Venezuelan pilot who this week told Miami's Union Radio 1210 that he registered corporations but wasn't active in their management) of Techmilk in August of that year. ( from Buenos Aires News: Wladimir Abad, owns Abad Air, which has made frequent flights between Venezuela, Miami, and the Turks and Caicos, a Caribbean money laundering haven. Abad, like Antonini, seems to be fascinated with the ease of starting a US company and has set up at least a dozen, none of which seem to have an address or employees...Antonini Wilson is part of a group of 35 - 45 year-old "businessmen" who have gotten rich under Chavez, and all hang out together. One of them is Ricardo Fernandez Barruecos, owner of American Food Grains; Wladimir Abad is the company secretary. One of AFG's planes was detained by the US DEA May 17 of this year. There are several members of the group, all rolling in dough, and all connected to PDVSA and Chavez. Abad, a big Chavista, drove around Caracas during the run-up to the recall campaign with a big red "NO!" sticker on his brand-new Ferrari, indicating his support for Chavez *) "He seems like a totally legit businessman to me.I'm in shock", Abad said, referring to Antonini in an interview with journalist Julio César Camacho.
In August, Abad helped Antonini start a new company, Techmilk. Abad is listed as vicepresident but he insists he's unaware of its dealings. Towards the end of that year Antonini incorporated, along with his friend Durán, Fox Delta Investments Inc.
His fleet of automobiles was upgraded since 2004. In January he purchased a current-model-year Hummer H2, and in March a current-model-year blue Porsche Cayenne SUV. He greeted 2007 gifting himself a white Porsche and a Range Rover Supercharge.
For her real-estate business dealings, his wife Jacqueline formed Antsai Investments.
Jacqueline y Antonini are listed as selling a unit at 6515 Collins Avenue for $387,500.00 in 2005.
2006 was a year that saw several trips to Latin America, including speedy trips to Uruguay and Argentina in March, April and June, travelling on both private jets and commercial flights.
The trip that changed his life unfolded as follows:
Thursday August 2nd, 2007. 9:04 p.m.
A Cessna Citation, US registration N5113S departs Buenos Aires' Aeroparque for Caracas. The plane was leaded by the Argentine state-owned oil company Enarsa (Energía Argentina, S.A) from Royal Class, a company on whose board sits Pablo Yabrán, son of Alfredo Yabrán, a controversial businessman who was investigated for the death of a journalist in Argentina.
Officially, according to Enarsa, the flight was intended to transport employees charged with signing an agreement relating to infrastucture required for supplying Argentina with Liquified Natural Gas.
On the plane were:
• Exequiel Espinosa, Enarsa's president.
• Claudio Uberti, director of Argentine state agency Occovi, liason between the Argentine and Venezuelan governments on joing enerhy projects
• Victoria Bereziuk, Uberti's secretary. According to captions on the cover of this week's Noticias magazine: "Bereziuk,blonde,29, raised in a well-to-do Martinez household, before coming to Occovi worked at a funeral parlor and Gastón Portal's television production company, today stands as the key with which the judges hope tp untangle the Aeroparque scandal"
Friday August 3. 7:15 p.m.
The plane leaves Caracas with five additional passengers, all Venezuelan. The manner in which the passenger list increased is fodder for all manner of speculation, from
that affirming that it was a last-minute favor requested by the Venezuelans to that
asserting that it was planned all along. "It's absolutely routine for government
figures to ask their foreign counterparts, taking advantage of an official return flight, to transport someone" explained Alberto Fernández, chief of staff of the Argentine administration.
The nine new passengers include:
* Antonini;
* Nelly Esperanza Cardoso Sánchez, PDVSA legal advisor;
* Daniel Uzcátegui Spetch, 19-year-old son of Diego Uzcátegui Matheus, managing director of the PDVSA'a Office of the President and presidente of PDVSA in Argentina. "A discrete, affable, agreeable man,Uzcátegui has managed to remain undistured at the side of the past five presidents of PDVSA, without anyone who worked alongside him being able to recall his face", wrote Caracas daily Tal Cual's Patricia Torres;
* Wilfredo José Avila Driet, of PDVSA's Protocol Office;
* Ruth Behrens Ramírez, PDVSA employee;
Saturday, August 4. 2:38 am
The plane lands at Aeroparque. There are reports that it originally attempted
to park on a nearby ramp that was taken up by the presidential plane Tango 1. Antonini gives as his Buenos Aires address that of the company that leased the Citation. One of the pilots explained to El Clarin that he filled out the immigration forms during the flight, as all the passengers were asleep.
According to Argentine journalist Jorge Lanata, Antonini' luggage passed through the X-ray scanner. Airport Police officer María Luján Telpuk, asked:
"Whose is this?"
Antonini replied diligently: "Mine".
"What are you carrying in the valise?"
Antonini: "Books and documents/papers".
"Please open it".
Antonini sighed deeply.
"Are these the papers?" the officer asked.
Antonini: "And yes."
"How much money is it?".
Antonini:"$60,000.00".
Antonini Wilson looked around and the Argentine officials were gone. Only Daniel Uzcátegui, son of PDVSA's vicepresident, was at his side. Police and customs officers counted the $50 dollar bills that amounted to $790,550.00.
After the count, Antonini made a comment, apparently in jest, but which cost him dearly, since the determination of whether the matter was an infraction or a crime depends on how his words are understood.
Accord to sources quoted by the Argentine media, Antonini said that now that there were eight officials standing in front of him, there was enough to split the valise's contents with
$100,000.00 going to each"
From the Spanish,El caso Antonini: la bitácora de un fiasco
GERARDO REYES / EL NUEVO HERALD
More links:
*From Argie Blogger
More
Antonini must yearn for those days of peaceful anonimity on an island of ten thousand where people aren't interested in their neighbor's past.
Argentinian, Venezuelan, U.S. and Uruguayan -at a minimum- justice and media have been searching for this man to clear up a two-week old mystery.
The mystery of the intended destination of a suitcase containing $790,550 in cash that was seized from him after his arrival in an executive jet at Buenos Aires' Jorge Newbery airport in the early morning of August 4th. His silence has been so extended that speculation regarding the secret he's keeping have grown with each passing day. There's talk about a campign contribution to the presidential campaign of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner; of an arms deal and a bribery payment; others say it's only the intercepted portion of a million-dollar level cash transfer.
The only thing certain people who are familiar with Antononi and his charcter are sure of is that he's not the brains behind the sophisticated operations attributed to him."Alejandro -hardly anyone calls him Guido- is like the good ole' barrio boy, the jolly fat man, whom you'd send off to do mischief and would never refuse", said one of his acquaintances who asked not to be identified.
Up to this point, the Affair of the Suitcase has led to the firing of several high level figures in the Argentine and Venezuelan petroleum industries, and the Argentine press asserts that the matter tainted the launch of Cristina Fernández's -the wife of the President of Argentina- campaign in Luna Park last week.
President Hugo Chávez's administration, which initially attributed the scandal to
CIA dirty tricks in cahoots with Venezuela's non-governmental media, has had to accept that it amounts to a "not very important...but inescapable" matter, according to VIce-President ( and former head of the elections oversight board) Jorge Rodríguez.
Based on eyewitness accounts, documents, interviews with sources and journalists as well as on material published in those countries closely following this case, El Nuevo Herald retraces the timeline of the Antonini fiasco and details the people who accompanied him, as well as those who've surrouned the entrepreneur these past few years.
Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson was born April 8, 1961 in La Victoria. His mother,
Beverly Wilson, is a 67-year-old American citizen. They say that Guido Alejandro
got his height from his 5'6" mom. Antonini is brown-complexioned, portly and corpulent. "He's like a (barrel)!! (I was stunned) at how fat that guy's gotten." said a neighbor to Argentina's La Nacion's correspondent, in La Victoria.
Of his character it's said that he's a likeable, unassuming man not given to intellectual pursuits.
Mis mother is listed as being a resident of Atlanta,GA; her driver's license lists
a first-floor apartment on Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne as her most recent address.
Guido's father, Don Guido, an engineer turned politician, was president of Victoria
Consejo Municipal ( city council) and likewise lives in Miami. Antonini apparently finished high school but didn't graduate college.
He and Jacqueline Regnault Palacios, listed in Miami-Dade County registrar's documents
as an attorney, were married on November 30, 1991 . On June 17, 2005 Regnault received a power-of-attorney to represent Franklin Durán, a Venezuelan friend and associate of Antonini's, in the sale of #902, Bel-Aire on The Ocean Condominiums in Key Biscayne.
At least three people interviewed by El Nuevo Herald state that Durán is one of Antonini's friends with the most influence over him. Durán, who turns 40 next month, is described as an intelligent businessmane, discrete, taken with luxury automobiles. He's the registered owner of a yellow 2005 Porsche Boxster and a same model year boat, at the address of Key Biscayne's most photographed residence in the past days: A white, two-story, white structure on Mashta Dr. with canal views, valued at $3,900,000.00. This address appears on documents recording joint Antonini and Durán corporation/business.
Durán is connected with two lucrative fields: arms and the petroleum industry.
According to a judgment by the Supreme Court of the state of Vargas, Venezuela,
Durán in 2002 imported into Venezuela, through his Ruibal y Durán company, 73 Israelí UZI submachineguns, intended for the Cojedes state police. Venezuelan authorities searched the shipment for supposed contraband, but the court dismissed the case in October 2004
On the petroleum front, Durán is linked with Venezuelan company Perforaciones Albornoz (Perfoalca) which has several contracts with government-owned oil company
PDVSA. Another shareholder in Perfoalca is Carlos Kauffman, a friend of Antonini.
Some residents of La Victoria told correspondents for La Nación and Venezuela's El Universal that Antonini permanently moved to Miai 15 years ago.
The first automobile registered to him in Florida is a Toyota truck purchased in 1994, his address stated as 575 Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne. In May of that year
he acquired a 1989 BMW, and in June he incorporated one of his most active companies: Venuz Suply(sic), Inc. That same year his wife obtained her real estate broker's license. The following year the couple bought a unit at 141 Crandon Boulevard (Key Colony), for $234,000. Antonini's life apparently was tranquil. His record only shows a charge for boating in a no-trespass zone. Aside for his mortgage, hi s only other debt was with Mayor's jewelers.
In those years, those who knew him say, Antonini was on the prowl for any business, big or small, from which he could profit as a middleman: he exported new and used tires to Venezuela, he sold spare parts for cars and trucks, and he was getting his start in exporting weapons and security materials to Venezuela.
Meanwhile, his wife sold houses and condos, especially to Venezuelans who wanted to invest in South Florida.
From all indications, business boomed with the rise to power of president Hugo Chávez and the petroleum windfall that Venezuela has enjoyed these past few years. In August 2001 the Antoninis registered as their residence # 807 The Mark on Brickell, 1155 Brickell Bay Drive. One year later they purchased, for $606,300.00 #301 Lake Villa One, in the Ocean Club condominium. Antonini is also listed as the owner of #305 Key Biscayne Ambassador condominium, a much more modest building, dating from 1975 on the island's main drag, Crandon Boulevard.
In that same year he incorporated Defensa y Tecnología in Venezuela for the "sale, distribution, exportation and importation of military and law enforcement weaponry" accordingto Caracas' El Mundo.
Throughout 2003 Antonini increased his portfolio with the creation of Global Ads Corp in Florida, and the founding, with Wladimir Abad ( a Venezuelan pilot who this week told Miami's Union Radio 1210 that he registered corporations but wasn't active in their management) of Techmilk in August of that year. ( from Buenos Aires News: Wladimir Abad, owns Abad Air, which has made frequent flights between Venezuela, Miami, and the Turks and Caicos, a Caribbean money laundering haven. Abad, like Antonini, seems to be fascinated with the ease of starting a US company and has set up at least a dozen, none of which seem to have an address or employees...Antonini Wilson is part of a group of 35 - 45 year-old "businessmen" who have gotten rich under Chavez, and all hang out together. One of them is Ricardo Fernandez Barruecos, owner of American Food Grains; Wladimir Abad is the company secretary. One of AFG's planes was detained by the US DEA May 17 of this year. There are several members of the group, all rolling in dough, and all connected to PDVSA and Chavez. Abad, a big Chavista, drove around Caracas during the run-up to the recall campaign with a big red "NO!" sticker on his brand-new Ferrari, indicating his support for Chavez *) "He seems like a totally legit businessman to me.I'm in shock", Abad said, referring to Antonini in an interview with journalist Julio César Camacho.
In August, Abad helped Antonini start a new company, Techmilk. Abad is listed as vicepresident but he insists he's unaware of its dealings. Towards the end of that year Antonini incorporated, along with his friend Durán, Fox Delta Investments Inc.
His fleet of automobiles was upgraded since 2004. In January he purchased a current-model-year Hummer H2, and in March a current-model-year blue Porsche Cayenne SUV. He greeted 2007 gifting himself a white Porsche and a Range Rover Supercharge.
For her real-estate business dealings, his wife Jacqueline formed Antsai Investments.
Jacqueline y Antonini are listed as selling a unit at 6515 Collins Avenue for $387,500.00 in 2005.
2006 was a year that saw several trips to Latin America, including speedy trips to Uruguay and Argentina in March, April and June, travelling on both private jets and commercial flights.
The trip that changed his life unfolded as follows:
Thursday August 2nd, 2007. 9:04 p.m.
A Cessna Citation, US registration N5113S departs Buenos Aires' Aeroparque for Caracas. The plane was leaded by the Argentine state-owned oil company Enarsa (Energía Argentina, S.A) from Royal Class, a company on whose board sits Pablo Yabrán, son of Alfredo Yabrán, a controversial businessman who was investigated for the death of a journalist in Argentina.
Officially, according to Enarsa, the flight was intended to transport employees charged with signing an agreement relating to infrastucture required for supplying Argentina with Liquified Natural Gas.
On the plane were:
• Exequiel Espinosa, Enarsa's president.
• Claudio Uberti, director of Argentine state agency Occovi, liason between the Argentine and Venezuelan governments on joing enerhy projects
• Victoria Bereziuk, Uberti's secretary. According to captions on the cover of this week's Noticias magazine: "Bereziuk,blonde,29, raised in a well-to-do Martinez household, before coming to Occovi worked at a funeral parlor and Gastón Portal's television production company, today stands as the key with which the judges hope tp untangle the Aeroparque scandal"
Friday August 3. 7:15 p.m.
The plane leaves Caracas with five additional passengers, all Venezuelan. The manner in which the passenger list increased is fodder for all manner of speculation, from
that affirming that it was a last-minute favor requested by the Venezuelans to that
asserting that it was planned all along. "It's absolutely routine for government
figures to ask their foreign counterparts, taking advantage of an official return flight, to transport someone" explained Alberto Fernández, chief of staff of the Argentine administration.
The nine new passengers include:
* Antonini;
* Nelly Esperanza Cardoso Sánchez, PDVSA legal advisor;
* Daniel Uzcátegui Spetch, 19-year-old son of Diego Uzcátegui Matheus, managing director of the PDVSA'a Office of the President and presidente of PDVSA in Argentina. "A discrete, affable, agreeable man,Uzcátegui has managed to remain undistured at the side of the past five presidents of PDVSA, without anyone who worked alongside him being able to recall his face", wrote Caracas daily Tal Cual's Patricia Torres;
* Wilfredo José Avila Driet, of PDVSA's Protocol Office;
* Ruth Behrens Ramírez, PDVSA employee;
Saturday, August 4. 2:38 am
The plane lands at Aeroparque. There are reports that it originally attempted
to park on a nearby ramp that was taken up by the presidential plane Tango 1. Antonini gives as his Buenos Aires address that of the company that leased the Citation. One of the pilots explained to El Clarin that he filled out the immigration forms during the flight, as all the passengers were asleep.
According to Argentine journalist Jorge Lanata, Antonini' luggage passed through the X-ray scanner. Airport Police officer María Luján Telpuk, asked:
"Whose is this?"
Antonini replied diligently: "Mine".
"What are you carrying in the valise?"
Antonini: "Books and documents/papers".
"Please open it".
Antonini sighed deeply.
"Are these the papers?" the officer asked.
Antonini: "And yes."
"How much money is it?".
Antonini:"$60,000.00".
Antonini Wilson looked around and the Argentine officials were gone. Only Daniel Uzcátegui, son of PDVSA's vicepresident, was at his side. Police and customs officers counted the $50 dollar bills that amounted to $790,550.00.
After the count, Antonini made a comment, apparently in jest, but which cost him dearly, since the determination of whether the matter was an infraction or a crime depends on how his words are understood.
Accord to sources quoted by the Argentine media, Antonini said that now that there were eight officials standing in front of him, there was enough to split the valise's contents with
$100,000.00 going to each"
From the Spanish,El caso Antonini: la bitácora de un fiasco
GERARDO REYES / EL NUEVO HERALD
More links:
*From Argie Blogger
More
1 comments:
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