American Express bankers face money laundering charges
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from January 1994.
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Antonio Giraldi and Maria Lourdes Reategui are accused in federal court of several counts of laundering profits from the alleged drug organization of Juan Garcia Abrego, one of Mexico's most notorious fugitives. Giraldi is a senior vice president for American Express Bank International's Miami office. Lourdes is a former employee of the bank's Los Angeles office.
A federal indictment, issued last month, accuses the two of setting up international bank accounts for Ricardo Aguirre Villagomez, a gas station owner from Matamoros, Mexico, who is named as a key Abrego moneylaunderer.
Abrego, who is wanted in both the United States and Mexico, was accused in a US indictment in 1990 of running a Matamoros-based organization that smuggled multi-ton quantities of cocaine into the United States. through ties to Colombian drug lords.
The indictment alleges that Aguirre moved the money from exchanges houses and Texas banks to his bank accounts in Switzerland, then to his holding companies in the Cayman Islands.
The money was then invested in apparently legitimate businesses in the United States and Mexico to hide its origin as drug profits, the indictment alleges.
Giraldi and Reategui have been free on $100,000 bond each since surrendering to US Customs Service agents last month.
American Express Bank International is a subsidiary of American Express Co.'s international bank, American Express Bank Ltd. The indictment alleges that Giraldi and Reategui made false statements in the bank's records to secure loans for Aguirre, with Aguirre's drug proceeds as collateral.
The Customs Service, the lead agency in the investigation, has seized about $30 million in Aguirre assets.
American Express Bank International unsuccessfully tried to persuade US District Judge Filemon B. Vela to unfreeze those assets. The bank said in court papers that it used $29 million of Aguirre's money as collateral for $19 million in loans to companies that Aguirre controlled.
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has required the bank to list the $19 million in loans as doubtful and charge half their amount against 1993 earnings, the bank's lawyers told the court.
Aguirre's family has claimed in court documents that he died in a car accident in Mexico shortly after a separate US indictment in February. But Judge Vela has ruled that there was not sufficient evidence to prove Aguirre's death. US authorities consider him a fugitive.
