Bill Clinton and Mark Jimenez meeting in the White House.
Posted on 12/25/2002 9:01:41 PM PST by HAL9000
Manila legislator to leave for U.S. to face criminal charges
MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- After losing an extradition battle, a wealthy Filipino lawmaker said he was ready to fly to Florida on Thursday to face charges that he made illegal campaign contributions to President Clinton and the Democratic Party in the 1990s.
Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez said he was scheduled to fly late Thursday to Miami via the U.S. territory of Guam and Honolulu, Hawaii.
A Manila court handling his extradition case had ordered Jimenez, 55, to leave voluntarily by Thursday or face arrest.
Jimenez was indicted by a Florida district court in 1997 on 17 counts of illegally giving nearly $40,000 to Democratic Party candidates, reportedly including Clinton.
In 1998, Jimenez, who ran a computer parts business in Florida, fled the United States and last year was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives. The United States requested his extradition in 1999.
In Manila, Jimenez became former President Joseph Estrada's friend and adviser and helped broker several large business deals before the two had a falling out.
Estrada was ousted in January 2001 over alleged corruption and misrule and was replaced by his vice president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In radio interviews Thursday, Jimenez said he expected to be handcuffed and jailed once he reached the United States. Since the Miami court handling his case will be closed for the weekend, he was expected to spend the weekend in jail and try to post bail on Monday.
He complained he had booked an earlier flight with Philippine Airlines, but was told by Philippine authorities he had to take a U.S. carrier in accordance with the Philippines-U.S. extradition treaty.
MJ told to fly Continental
Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez was told to take a Continental Airlines flight for what he insists is his "voluntary departure" to the United States in the wake of extradition efforts exerted by American law enforcement officials, it was learned Thursday.
Jimenez questioned the last minute change in his flight schedule, which he said will result in his failure to make it on time for the hearing in Miami, Florida.
Jimenez told a radio dzMM interview he was scheduled to take a Philippine Airlines flight to Los Angeles this morning but was later informed he had to take an American carrier, Continental Airlines.
"What will happen is that the courts will be closed when I arrive there, I will miss the bail hearing so that means I will be handcuffed and detained," Jimenez pointed out.
Jimenez said that U.S. officials should have instructed him to take a Northwest Airlines flight which left early this morning for him to arrive in Florida with time to spare.
Jimenez is being extradited to face charges before the U.S. District Court of South Florida for two counts of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, four counts of tax evasion worth $3.5 million (P175 million), two counts of wire fraud, six counts of false statements and 33 counts of illegal campaign contribution to the Democratic Party.
Instead, Aksyon Demokratiko Rep. Wilfrido Villarama of Bulacan and Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr. of Surigao del Sur, among other politicians and friends of Jimenez, said they intend to accompany him on the trip to America.
Reynaldo Wycoco, National Bureau of Investigation director, earlier said Jimenez will be escorted by NBI agents from his Forbes Park home to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. There, agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, together with agent Allan Fontan of the NBI Interpol Division, will take him up the plane and be his guards throughout the flight to Florida.
abs-cbnNEWS.com
Jimenez causing delay in extradition
Posted: 10:33 AM (Manila Time) | Dec. 26, 2002
Agence France-Presse
A PHILIPPINE legislator set to be extradited to the United States Thursday is putting up last-minute resistance before he is to be flown to Miami for a criminal trial, a law enforcer said.
Millionaire Congressman Mark Jimenez has not been given a US visa because he has chosen to make his own travel arrangements, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Interpol chief Ric Diaz said. Jimenez faces up to five years in jail if convicted in the United States on charges of conspiracy, fraud, tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions.
A lower court last week ordered him turned over to the United States not later than Dec. 26 after he voluntarily ended his three year-old legal battle against extradition.
Under the ruling, he faces automatic arrest here if he fails to leave the Philippines by midnight Thursday.
"We have a small problem here," Diaz said over DZRH radio.
"The trouble with them is, they (Jimenez and his lawyers) are making their own travel preparations as if they were ordinary tourists. That is not allowed under our extradition treaty. Up to now he doesn't even have a visa," he added.
He said the NBI has learned that Jimenez would turn himself in only at 8:00 PM. Diaz said this could cause problems because there would only be two US-bound flights for the day, and only one of a US carrier.
"Under the extradition treaty he has to be put on board an American carrier," he said. Jimenez may be forced to take the 11:40 PM Continental Air Micronesia flight, Diaz added.
The official said Jimenez has refused to coordinate his travel plans with the NBI, forcing him to assign two agents to monitor the US fugitive 24 hours a day in case he had a change of heart and fled.
"If he doesn't turn himself in today he would have a problem," Diaz said.
Jimenez, who turns 56 on New Year's Eve, built up a fortune running a computer components distribution business in the United States and Latin America after emigrating from the Philippines.
He returned to Manila in May 1998 and befriended Joseph Estrada, who was later elected president.
Jimenez was indicted in Miami in 1999, but he fought his extradition in Philippine court and last year won a seat in the House of Representatives, while Estrada was arrested and put on trial for corruption.
The AFP article says that the extradition treaty requires fugitives to return on an American carrier. He will be in US custody during the flight.
MANILA Rep. Mark Jimenez has hired American lawyer Kenneth Starr to represent him in plea bargain negotiations with the US government.
..[snip]
WHO is Mark Jimenez? by: Michelle Malkin
[snip]...Jimenez first met Bill Clinton in 1994, according to the Wall Street Journal, and soon after contributed more than $800,000 to various Democrat causes. Jimenez golfed with Clinton, socialized with now-U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, and attended one of the infamous fund-raising coffee klatches at the White House. He lobbied the administration on behalf of Paraguay, where his firm had major business interests. A month after the coffee meeting, Clinton allowed the country to continue receiving U.S. aid despite restrictions on other Latin American governments that fail to control cocaine smuggling.
In all, Jimenez visited the White House 12 times between 1994 and 1996. He even shelled out $100,000 toward the restoration of the former president's ancestral home in Arkansas. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism notes that photos made available to the press by Jimenez are "usually the ones showing him dining with Bill and Hillary."
Though he doesn't have Kodak moments to show for it, Jimenez also connected with Democrat Senators Bob Torricelli of New Jersey and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. The U.S. Justice Department campaign finance task force says Jimenez -- a foreign citizen barred from making hard-money contributions to U.S. elections -- poured funny money into Clinton, Kennedy and Torricelli's coffers through an illegal straw donation scheme involving 23 of his employees.
It is illegal to disguise the true source of campaign contributions and evade limits by making donations in the name of another. It is illegal to reimburse individuals for political contributions. And it is illegal to use corporate funds for donations directly to candidates.
At least seven of Jimenez's workers who "gave" $1,000 each to Clinton at a Miami fund-raiser Jimenez hosted later received $1,000 bonus checks in return. Jimenez's company pleaded guilty to having falsely claimed the donation reimbursements as deductible payroll expenses on its corporate income tax return. In addition, the company admitted having falsely reported as a charitable contribution deduction a $100,000 donation made to the Democratic National Committee. The company pled guilty to two felony counts of tax evasion and agreed to pay a $1 million fine, plus back taxes and penalties owed.
Jimenez has yet to be held accountable for his role in masterminding this straw donor scheme. In the spring of 1998, just months before the Justice Department indicted him, Jimenez fled back to his native Philippines. He is also wanted for tax evasion, wire fraud, conspiracy, false statements and unpaid debts in Florida...[snip]
By Michael Weisskopf/Washington - 1997
(TIME, September 1) -- For a man who had supposedly vanished from the corridors of power, MACK MCLARTY was the man to see in 1996. BILL CLINTON's former chief of staff, now a White House counselor tucked away in the basement, provided assistance to businessmen who ponied up $1.5 million for the Democrats in the last election. On Nov. 22, 1995, for example, Clinton scrawled an FYI note to McLarty, enclosing a newspaper article on Enron Corp. and the vicissitudes of its $3 billion power-plant project in India. McLarty then reached out to Enron's chairman, KEN LAY, and over the next nine months closely monitored the project with the U.S. ambassador to New Delhi, keeping Lay informed of the Administration's efforts, according to White House documents reviewed by TIME. In June 1996, four days before India granted final approval to Enron's project, Lay's company gave $100,000 to the President's party. Enron denies that its gift was repayment for Clinton's attention, and White House special counsel LANNY DAVIS says McLarty acted out of concern for a major U.S. investment overseas.
Nevertheless, there does seem to be a McLarty pattern. At Clinton's request, he met with international oil consultant ROGER TAMRAZ and asked the Energy Department if the Administration could not be more supportive of his Caspian Sea pipeline proposal (Tamraz' contribution: $200,000). It was McLarty who directed a White House lawyer to query the Justice Department about a case protested by VANCE OPPERMAN, head of a legal publishing house (contribution: $350,000). The counselor arranged a White House meeting for Miami computer executive MARK JIMENEZ to discuss political unrest in an important Latin American market (contribution: $325,000). And last week the Washington Post reported that McLarty helped get a Clinton audience for Federal Express chairman FRED SMITH and his concerns about Japanese trade practices. Contribution: $525,000. Davis says McLarty acted "appropriately" in every case...[snip]
I don't get it. Entities give huge sums of money illegally to political candidates. The candidates flood the airwaves with advertising and in turn win some races merely from the increased name recognition. The person in position now subverts legislation, hides behind of the mantle of power, and illegally aids the donating party. And the only the contributor gets arrested. Sheesh.
I'm not a lawyer and certainly not a Clinton apologist, but individual campaigns cannot be held accountable for investigating and vetting every single contribution.
That said, I don't think that's the point with Jiminez (at least in my reading). It seems that Jiminez hired Ken Starr to negotiate a plea bargain which suggests the investigators are interested either in a guilty plea on reduced charges, or information from Jiminez in other criminal investigations. If it's information they're after I certainly hope they can prove a quid pro quo for the Latin American favors Slick did after the $350k was paid.
FBI Raids Hillary's Warehouse in Whitewater Deja Vu - June 2002
Peter Paul: Hillary Clinton's Torricelli Problem
According to the above, the DoJ is warming up to provide immunity to Peter Paul in this action as well...I have been watching this one closely. This could be an interesting year since the Dems have not kept their part of the deal
and we have total control.
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