EVIDENCE SUGGESTS SECRET TAIWAN PAYMENTS TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAGUA 000213

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN AND INR/I

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2031
TAGS: PINR EAID CH TWI PREL ECIN EINV ETRD PM GT
CS, NU
SUBJECT: EVIDENCE SUGGESTS SECRET TAIWAN PAYMENTS TO
EX-PRESIDENT ALEMAN (C-AL5-01181)

REF: STATE 6661

Classified By: AMBASSADOR PAUL TRIVELLI. REASONS 1.4 (B,D).


1. (C) On January 25, poloff and RLA met Attorney General for
Criminal Affairs Ivan Lara and Economic Crimes investigator
Mario Diaz of the Nicaraguan National Police (NNP) to discuss
Taiwan's use of foreign aid funds in Nicaragua in recent
years. Lara and Diaz did not have any evidence of Taiwanese
payments to individual politicians since the Bolanos
administration took office in January 2002, but they do have
evidence of such payments to ex-President Arnoldo Aleman in
2000-2001.


2. (C) Diaz told emboffs that credible sources have told the
NNP that the Government of Taiwan paid 6 million USD to
ex-president Arnoldo Aleman in 2000 in return for Nicaraguan
promotion of Taiwanese membership in the United Nations.
According to the NNP's sources, 2 million USD was given
directly to Aleman in cash, while 4 million USD was channeled
through U.S. banks (mostly Citibank in New York) and then
into the accounts of the Nicaraguan Democratic Foundation
(FDN) in Panama, the same private account through which
Aleman funneled most of the stolen GON funds in his various
money laundering schemes. Once funds (whether from Taiwan or
the GON treasury) went into the FDN account, Aleman and his
associates then transferred them into the accounts of
Panamanian shell companies they had established for the sole
purpose of further laundering the funds. Diaz noted that
Aleman's father-in-law (and partner in his money laundering
schemes),Jose Antonio Flores Lovo, was the Nicaraguan consul
in New York (and substitute Nicaraguan ambassador to the
U.N.),at the time, and the NNP believes that Flores Lovo
played some part in facilitating transfer of the Taiwanese
money to Aleman.


3. (C) Lara added that his office has documentation of at
least some of the Taiwanese transfers into the FDN account.
Financial routing documents provided to the GON by the
government of Panama show that between June 2000 and October
2001, at least 1.5 million USD was transferred from Taiwanese
banks into the FDN account. The transaction records list
such names as "Fortuna Co., Ltd.", "Honguo Co., Ltd.", and
"Wei Keh Wu" as the companies or persons paying money into
the FDN account. Lara told emboffs that the GON was never
sure whether all these names represented companies or
individuals, and they could not document that the government
of Taiwan was the original source of the funds.


4. (C) In order to investigate the transactions further, in
2003, the GON, through its Embassy in Taipei, sent a formal
diplomatic request to the GOT to investigate the questionable
transactions and provide the GON information on the sources
of the money. According to Lara, as of January 2006, the GON
has never received any Taiwanese reply to its request for
information, despite multiple follow-up requests. The lack
of a response from Taipei, combined with the circumstantial
evidence and the information given to the NNP by its sources,
leads Lara to conclude that Taiwan was indeed the source of
the payments to Aleman. Lara believes that the Taiwanese
"companies" listed on the transaction documents were simply
dummy companies of the same sort that Aleman set up in Panama
and elsewhere to disguise all of his illicit transactions.
Lara provided emboffs copies of several of the documents
showing transactions from Taiwanese banks into Aleman's
Panamanian accounts, and, if the Department wishes, post can
send copies of the documents to Washington.
TRIVELLI