TASK FORCE TARGETS FOREIGN OFFICIALS, BUSINESS EXECUTIVES

The Miami Herald - Saturday, December 20, 2003
Author: ALFONSO CHARDY, achardy@herald.com

A federal task force has been established in Miami-Dade County to track down corrupt former and current foreign officials and business executives living in South Florida or who may have properties and assets here.

The group, known officially as the foreign corruption/financial task force, began operating several months ago as a pilot program of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau that may later become national.

The task force is roughly modeled after another program, also started in Miami and later expanded nationwide, that targets foreign torture suspects living in the United States.

`A MAJOR CHANGE'

``For decades we overlooked these problems in Latin America because we were mainly interested in advancing our own interests,'' said Michael Bander , an immigration attorney who in the 1970s served as an American diplomat in South America. ``Dealing with the twin problems of corruption and human rights violations by targeting people who conducted themselves in an unlawful manner before is a major change.''

The anticorruption task force has already acted on its first suspect: Byron Jerez, former head of the Nicaraguan tax office. His $3.5-million Key Biscayne condo and more than $150,000 in cash were seized this month.

In June, Jeréz was sentenced to eight years in Nicaragua for allegedly stealing $500,000 in government funds to finance Miami companies, but this month a judge cleared him of separate money-laundering charges.

Investigators are also looking into possible South Florida illicit financial dealings by former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán, who this month was sentenced to 20 years under house detention on money laundering and other charges.

Anthony Arico, assistant special agent in charge of overseeing the task force, said other current and former foreign officials and banking executives with potentially criminal connections to South Florida are being investigated, but he declined to identify them. Other sources suggested that former Ecuadoran officials were under investigation.

One former senior Ecuadoran customs official, Cárlos Flores Andrade, was detained by immigration agents last month and placed in deportation proceedings at the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade following allegations he embezzled more than $10 million in his country.

CONNECTIONS

Also, officials say, federal agents have begun investigating possible illicit connections to South Florida involving former Ecuadoran President Gustavo Noboa, who recently received asylum in the Dominican Republic.

Though no other names have been mentioned, sources familiar with the anticorruption program say investigators are gathering evidence on suspects from Mexico and Peru, among other countries.

It is believed that over the years, hundreds of former foreign officials from Latin America and the Caribbean have settled in Florida, Texas and California after leaving office.

Sporadically, federal authorities have nabbed a former foreign official here and there. But this is the first effort to focus on those cases.

Arico said his agents are pursuing tips provided by foreign governments or U.S. embassies in the region.

Arico said the task force has grown to 15 to 20 agents and support staff including Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel as well as officers from the Departments of State and Justice, the Secret Service, Miami Police and the Broward Sheriff's Office.