Word: argentina
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...been a bumpy ride so far for Argentina's new president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. And barely more than a week has passed since she was inaugurated. Hailed as Argentina's new Evita, Fernandez had been in office for three days when her first crisis broke. It originated in faraway Miami, where Assistant U.S. District Attorney Thomas Mulvihill said in court that the FBI had recorded alleged Venezuelan agents saying that $800,000 confiscated by Argentine customs authorities in Buenos Aires four months ago was actually an illegal campaign contribution from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Fernandez' electoral campaign...
...particularly sensitive issue for Fernandez, who ran on her record as a fiery anti-corruption crusader while she was in Argentina's Congress. It also complicates her attempts to mediate between the U.S. and its bete noir, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez...
...recording was provided by Venezuelan-American businessman Guido Antonini, the Miami resident who had allegedly attempted to smuggle the $800,000 into Argentina on Aug. 4 on a flight from Caracas, Venezuela. He flew on a charter by Argentina's state oil company. Antonini, who had allegedly fled Argentina for his Key Biscayne, Florida, home, allowed himself to be wiretapped by the FBI and the information he gathered led to the arrest of Venezuelan businessmen Franklin Duran and Carlos Kauffmann. Mulvihill said that Antonini had been offered $2 million by an unnamed party to hide the provenance and the beneficiary...
...reaction from Fernandez and many in Argentina has been swift and aimed directly at the U.S., which is seen in Argentina as having masterminded the money-smuggling operation to smear the new president. In a public statement, she labelled the accusations "a trash campaign" by Washington against her. The sentiment has been taken up by the media, which has called Antonini a U.S. agent who planted the $800,000 as part of an operation against Fernandez...
...injected badly needed capital, eventually buying 20% of the company and becoming CEO of the renamed Imperium Renewables. ("Less local," he explains.) More funding came from angel investors and successful rounds of venture financing, and today Imperium is set to break ground on new plants in Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Argentina, and is preparing to go public. With Imperium, Tobias knows his money is making a difference. "Investors want to do something good, and they want to make money," he says. "Clean tech is a way to do that...