AG opens investigation into charges that MVR deputies have US$ bank accounts

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, March 16, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

The Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into opposition charges raised December 26 that Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) deputies have US dollar accounts in North American banks and did not declare the fact in mandatory sworn declarations of assets to the Comptroller General’s Office.

During a national stoppage “war bulletin” last December, opposition leaders accused William Lara, Nicolas Maduro, Iris Valera, Dario Vivas, Adan Chavez and Tarek William Saab of having accounts at the First Union Bank of Florida. The case is currently in the hands of 28th state prosecutor, Rosa Memoli Bruno ... who must proceed to check the veracity of the deputies' declared assets declarations.

The Attorney General has also approached the Foreign Ministry (MRE) to draw up a request to the US government for access to the deputies' bank account details ... even though traditional front agents may have opened and administered the accounts.

National Assembly (AN) deputy Tarek William Saab has denied having bank accounts in any foreign country ... “much less the USA where I have been refused an entry visa.“

Saab recalls that the complaint had its origin in an anonymous Internet slur that was taken up and published in Roberto Smith’s column in the weekly tabloid “Reporte" and subsequently read out at one of the opposition’s daily “war bulletins” in December.

Deputy Saab says he's been trying to get the US bank to issue a denial certificate and had asked Venezuelan consul Antonio Hernandez Burgos in Miami for assistance.