The Miami Herald

Posted on Sat. Jan. 17, 2004

Task force to target foreign corruption

BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@herald.com

Having taken aim at foreign-born human rights violators, the Bush administration is now targeting corrupt foreign public officials and business executives.

Earlier this week President Bush issued an order mandating U.S. embassies and consulates to deny visas to public officials linked to corruption.

Meanwhile, a new federal task force created in Florida in August may be expanded nationwide. The task force is charged with investigating and prosecuting foreign officials and executives living here on corruption charges and seizing U.S. assets of corrupt officials living abroad.

The task force, based at the Miami-Dade office of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement adds a domestic tool to the administration's new effort against international corruption. Not only will corrupt foreign officials not be able to visit or live in the United States, but they also won't be permitted to deposit their ill-gotten gains in American banks or invest in U.S. real estate.

NATIONAL MODEL

The anti-corruption task force is modeled after a similar Department of Homeland Security team that is targeting foreign nationals in the United States accused of human rights violations abroad.

For years many foreign officials, particularly from Latin America, have retired in South Florida or bought homes in fashionable areas like Key Biscayne, Coral Gables or Palm Beach -- often with proceeds from bribes or embezzlement.

But U.S. officials say that their ability to enjoy their fortunes may be compromised because the task force will pursue them, press criminal charges and seize their assets.
Anthony Arico, assistant special agent in charge who oversees the task force, said Friday through his spokeswoman, Nina Pruneda, that more resources will be given to the task force but declined to provide details. He also said Bush's order sends ''a strong message that the United States is not going to be a safe haven for corrupt officials.'' Arico has refused to say how many foreign officials are being targeted by the task force or reveal their nationalities.

UNDER INVESTIGATION

In a previous interview, he said that two former foreign officials, former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán and Alemán's tax chief Byron Jerez, were under investigation.
Alemán was sentenced in Nicaragua last month to 20 years under house detention on money laundering and other charges. Jerez was sentenced in June in Nicaragua to eight years for allegedly stealing $500,000 in government funds to finance Miami companies, but last month was cleared of separate money-laundering charges.

Arico said that while legal proceedings had not yet been initiated against Alemán, his assets in Florida were being investigated.

Jerez became the task force's first major case when in December it had his $3.5-million Key Biscayne condo and more than $150,000 seized by federal court order.

Bush's executive order to U.S. embassies and consulates will go into effect once the State Department developes specific regulations defining how U.S. diplomats will identify corrupt officials.

Activists involved in efforts to stem public corruption overseas praised Bush's move. But some said the new anti-public corruption task force also should target those in the United States who manage corrupt foreign officials' money and assets.

''The biggest test will be if the task force and the U.S. Attorney's Office will prosecute U.S. financial institutions, Realtors, lawyers and others who knowingly handle that corruption money,'' said Charles A. Intriago, director of Moneylaundering.com and publisher of Money Laundering Alert, a Miami-based monthly publication.