One of Mauricio Madero's partners
Fugitive Banker Captured
After eluding capture for four years, fugitive banker Carlos Cabal Peniche, sought internationally on 21 charges of financial fraud amounting to at least $170 million, was arrested November 10 in Melbourne, Australia. A Mexican agent, with help from the U.S. Attorney General’s office, carried out the effort, giving a needed boost to cross-border cooperation in criminal apprehensions. Cooperation had faltered earlier over the secret U.S. Customs money-laundering investigation of Mexican banks. U.S. officials became interested in Cabal when their Mexican counterparts provided evidence of his clandestine financial empire, which reached from Asia to Latin America and included a major base in south Florida.
The extradition and trial of Cabal in Mexico could shed light on several investigations. In the early 1990s, during the nation’s bank privatization program, the government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari government sold Cabal two banks. In 1995, part of a $65 billion government bank bailout went to Cabal’s banks to pay for corrupt loans. Investigators since have gathered evidence that showed he lent hundreds of millions to himself from his banks through a network of phantom companies. Swiss investigators have also determined that Raúl Salinas, the former president’s brother, under scrutiny for massive drug money-laundering activities, used accounts in Cabal’s banks to transfer at least $67 million.
Opposition leaders in Congress have accused the government of protecting corrupt bankers. They recently uncovered documents that show Cabal contributed at least $14 million to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party in the 1994 election campaign. Of this sum, Cabal earmarked $4.5 million for the PRI gubernatorial campaign of his friend Roberto Madrazo, who spent more than 30 times the legal limit to win.
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