Venezuelan banker Eligio Cedeño. (photo: lapatilla)
Venezuelan
Banker Given Asylum by US Found in Panama Papers
By teleSUR
02 May 16
Eligio
Cedeño, a banker given asylum by the U.S. after he fled Venezuela in 2009 due
to charges of financial corruption, has shown up in the Panama Papers.
A journalist
with access to the Panama Papers has
confirmed that wanted Venezuelan banker Eligio Cedeño's name appears in the
Panama Papers, teleSUR has learned.
"Eligio
Cedeño is in there," said the journalist in an email sent as a response to
an inquiry regarding an article the publications that dealt with Venezuelans
mentioned in the initial Panama Papers leak. "Now we're trying to figure
out when he opened the accounts and what he did with them."
The
information was given to teleSUR by a contributor, who also delivered the tip
to other media outlets.
Cedeño,
then president of the Bolivar-Banpro Financial Group, and had previously been
the president of Banco Canarias de Venezuela, was arrested and detained in 2007
for breaking Venezuela's currency laws and engaging in illegal transactions to
obtain dollars. At the time, Venezuela was battling an exchange rate being
manipulated by outside factors, including the flooding of the currency market
with dollars.
The
banker was accused of aiding Consorcio MicroStar, another financial
institution, in obtaining U.S. dollars.
Microstar
had requested to import US$27 million for the purchase of computers. A public
prosecutor discovered irregularities in the importation proceedings, and filed
charges against Cedeño and Gustavo Arráiz, head of MicroStar.
After
more than two years of irregularities which resulted in the delay of his trial,
Cedeno was released on Dec. 10, 2009. Soon after, the banker had fled to the
United States. The judge who allowed his bail, Maria Lourdes Afiuni, was
arrested for corruption, abuse of authority, aiding in the evasion of justice,
and conspiracy in Cedeño's subsequent escape. Afiuni was conditionally released
in 2013.
On
December 17, 2009, then U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela Patrick Duddy wrote a
diplomatic cable to Washington which said there "may be information
linking Cedeño to criminal activities, including the illicit acquisition of two
banks."
Duddy
was wary of the United States releasing any statements specific to Cedeño's
legal status. "Such statements could lead us into a trap whereby the
Venezuelan government makes it appear that the United States is in collusion
with corrupt bankers," he said in the cable.
At the
time, the U.S. Embassy believed that "at least seven (Venezuelan) bankers
being sought in connection with recent banking scandals are in the United
States," Duddy explained in the cable leaked by WikiLeaks.
However,
he still encouraged the U.S. government to grant Cedeño asylum. The request was
granted in May 2011, and Cedeño currently resides in the United States.
teleSUR
does not have access to the Panama Papers database, and therefore cannot verify
how many offshore accounts Eligio Cedeño controlled, or what he did with his
funds.
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