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  1. #1
    Senior Member elpasoborn's Avatar
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    Chihuahua businessman faces money laundering, other charges

    http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15590554? ... ost_viewed

    Chihuahua businessman faces money laundering, other charges in scheme

    By Adriana Gómez Licón \ El Paso Times
    Posted: 07/23/2010 10:25:03 PM MDT

    EL PASO -- A wealthy businessman from Chihuahua faces money laundering and other charges in an alleged scheme to defraud an U.S. bank of millions of dollars.

    An indictment accuses Jaime Galván Guerrero, 39, of conspiring with seven other people to lie about purchases and exports of U.S. goods to Mexico. So far only Galván, of Delicias, Chihuahua, and Gilberto Baez GarcÃ*a, of Juárez, have been arrested.

    Galván was arrested in Las Vegas in June. He was extradited to El Paso last week and released on a $1 million bond. He pleaded not guilty on Thursday.

    Baez was arrested and pleaded not guilty in June and has not posted bond.

    The 11-count indictment charged that a $4 million dollar scheme began in 2002 and extended through 2008.

    Galván, Baez and the others obtained private loans from four different banks using false information about purchases and exports of U.S.-made machinery.

    The Export-Import Bank of the United States insured the loans, which later defaulted. Export-Import Bank is the country's official credit agency that aids companies and buyers looking to export U.S. goods.

    The group wired the money obtained in loans to different bank accounts in both the United States and outside the country, according to the indictment. A local export company, Valdomar, Inc., co-owned by Baez, was used to wire the money to bank accounts, said the indictment. County records show Baez also owns an air conditioning company on the East Side.

    The indictment said the purpose was for Baez, Galván and others to "unlawfully enrich themselves by promoting the carrying on of the specified unlawful activity."

    Court documents said those involved knew "the property involved in the financial transaction represented the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity."

    Galván said he did not want to comment on the charges. He is living in a half-million dollar home in West El Paso, owned by his wife. He said he is the grandson of Félix Galván, a former secretary of defense under the administration of Mexican President José López Portillo from 1976 to 1982.

    Galván's family runs a dairy company in Chihuahua that has state contracts with a state agency that provides welfare to families in Chihuahua. He is the executive vice president of Lácteos Cerro Grande.

    Mexican news reports said Galván contributed large sums of money to the campaign of Chihuahua's Governor-elect César Duarte.

    It is not the first time that the bank has insured alleged fraudulent loans in El Paso.

    The Export-Import Bank also insured the loans of Oswaldo Kuchle López, co-owner of the Aroma Restaurant. The government accused Kuchle López of defrauding the bank of millions by lying on loan applications about export and payments of goods and then defaulting.

    Export-Import Bank reported that $243 million in loans given between 2002 and 2005 to Mexican companies were in default.

    In December 2007, U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, asked Export-Import Bank officials to investigate allegations that some of the loans to Mexican companies had gone to drug traffickers.

    Phil Jordan, former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, has said that background checks of some Mexican borrowers of these loans yield ties to the Juárez and Sinaloa drug cartels.

    Jordan said cartel-related companies may have obtained millions of dollars in loans backed by Export-Import Bank. That was how Andrew M. Parker, a San Antonio businessman, received $107 million in loans insured by the Export-Import Bank between 2003 and 2006. He lied and said he needed the money to purchase heavy machinery and export it to Mexico.

    Instead, Parker used the money to buy two mansions in San Antonio, and bought or leased luxury vehicles that he traded for a $600,000 house in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to fraud, tax and money-laundering charges. He was sentenced to nine years and nine months in prison.

    Export-Import Bank officials did not comment on the latest case in El Paso. Before, they have said the agency did not have an Office of the Inspector General to oversee transactions.

  2. #2
    pixeldoctor's Avatar
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    why are Mexicans getting loans insured by US agencies?

    I have tried to get loans as a US citizen in the US to start a US company employing US citizens and here we have non-US citizens defrauding the system quite elegantly.

    Is this just the tip of the iceberg - How many such (smaller) loans are getting through the system and being backed by our agencies ?

    We've got to close these loopholes

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