Colombian man with links to pyramid scheme deported to US on money-laundering charges

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian man with links to pyramid scheme deported to US on money-laundering charges
By Associated Press
3:47 p.m. EDT, October 22, 2009

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A Colombian man with links to a pyramid scheme that bilked Colombians out of hundreds of millions of dollars was deported by Venezuela on Thursday to the United States, where he is wanted on money-laundering charges.

Venezuelan authorities took Luis Cediel to Caracas' main airport for the flight to the U.S. Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said Cediel would be handed over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The Colombian was indicted by U.S. authorities in New York earlier this year along with three co-defendents, accused of coordinating the collection of millions of dollars in drug proceeds in Mexico City beginning in February 2008.

The indictment unsealed in March says Cediel worked primarily out of Mexico for DMG Group Holdings SA, a business that promised fantastic interest rates but collapsed last November, prompting hundreds of angry investors to storm the company's office in Colombia. Authorities arrested DMG's principals and shuttered the company.

More:
http://www.courant.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-lt-colombia-pyramid-scheme,0,1315725.story

[Judi Lynn]

1. This clown, through his partner, has connections to Colombia's President's sons:

Panamá, jueves 15 de octubre de 2009

Murcia to stand trial in the U.S.

Colombia's Supreme Court on Wednesday authorized the extradition of David Murcia to the United States to face charges of money laundering.

"The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court issued a favorable opinion of extradition with respect to David Murcia Guzmán...so that he can be tried for conspiracy to commit the crime of laundering money," the court said in a statement.

U.S. authorities say Murcia and his partners moved several million dollars of profits from drug trafficking to more than 18 bank accounts in that country.

Murcia is being held in a prison in Colombia after his capture and deportation from Panama in November 2008.

His wife, Joanne Ivette Leon, was released in mid-March in Uruguay, where she was arrested, after prosecutors stopped extradition proceedings.

Murcia, through his attorney, said earlier this year that he preferred being extradited to the United States because he was not satisfied that he could receive a fair hearing in the Colombian courts.

http://mensual.prensa.com/mensual/contenido/2009/10/15/hoy/english/news_1225.asp

Earlier story:

Sales scam taints the 'Teflon President'
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
The Observer, Sunday December 7 2008

Once one of South America's most popular leaders, President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia has become embroiled in a hugely damaging scandal concerning a pyramid scam. The affair is denting his support and threatening his campaign to change the constitution so he can seek re-election for a third term.

The collapse of a series of pyramid schemes involving perhaps as many as 4 million out of 44 million Colombians has significantly reduced popular support for a controversial figure credited with driving leftist guerillas out of the cities and back into the countryside.

The sheer scale of the scandal has had consequences for the country's economy and politics and now the President's family after it was revealed that two of Uribe's sons were friends with one of the figures behind the worst of the scams.

According to the Washington Post last week, the Attorney General's office has reported that an estimated $1bn (£700m) has been lost in four southern states alone.

At the centre of Uribe's difficulties is the figure of David Murcia, a pony-tailed 28-year-old former travelling salesman, who set up DMG Group Holdings, described as a complex mixture between a pyramid scheme and a money-laundering vehicle.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/07/colombia-avara-uribe-pyramid-scam

http://blog.cleveland.com.nyud.net:8090/world_impact/2008/11/large_Arrests-Nov20-08-Colombia_Pyramid_Sche_Meye.JPG

David Murcia, orange shirt

http://www.cambio.com.co.nyud.net:8090/paiscambio/816/IMAGEN/IMAGEN-4826062-2.gif