Venezuelan found guilty in “Maletagate” trial

Venezuelan businessman Franklin Duran was found guilty in a U.S. federal court for his supposed role in the “Maletagate” scandal.

After six days of deliberations, the jury found Duran guilty of the charges of conspiracy and acting as an illegal foreign agent in the U.S. Duran’s lawyer alleged that he would appeal the case and that the trial served as a “political circus.” (These claims were vehemently denied by federal prosecutors).

Prosecutors alleged that Duran had been sent by the Venezuelan government to the U.S. in order to cover-up the actions of U.S.-Venezuelan citizen Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson. Wilson had been caught last year trying to smuggle $800,000 from Venezuela to Argentina, supposedly for President Cristina Kirchner’s campaign. Despite being wanted in Venezuela, Wilson would agree to work with the FBI and testify against Duran.

According to the New York Times:

Whether intentional or not, the eight-week trial in Miami revealed an extensive cover-up effort by Venezuelan officials that reached the highest levels of government, and laid bare a business culture in Venezuela that involves regular bribes and kickbacks to high government officials and members of the military.

The trial provided little in the way of evidence that American national security was somehow threatened by the presence of the Venezuelans, who spent much of their time on the phone and in South Florida restaurants trying to convince the man caught with the suitcase, Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, to keep the truth about the money under wraps.

Duran faces a maximum sentence of fifteen years in jail.
Image- BBC News (Franklin Duran along with four other defendants were arraigned in December 2007)
Sources- The Latin Americanist, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Voice of America, New York Times