Franklin Durán (born 12 September 1967 in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

) is a Venezuelan entrepreneur, implicated in the " suitcase scandal" between

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and Venezuela, and charged by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

with being an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Education

Durán attended high school at the Pedro Maria Ochoa Morales Military School in

Los Teques Los Teques () is the capital of the state of Miranda, and the municipality of Guaicaipuro in north-central Venezuela. The city is about 25 km southwest of Caracas, and above mean sea level. It lies in the Cordillera de la Costa, on the ba ...

and also at the

Anzoátegui Anzoátegui State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, states of Venezuela, located in the northeastern region of the country. Anzoátegui is well known for its beaches that attract many visitors. Its coast consists of a single beach approx ...

Military School. He finished his studies in the Capital Region's Technical Institute, obtaining the title of Technical Superior in Mechanics with a technology minor.

Business

Durán's first big business deal was the sale of

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

equipment and microwaves to the Pepeganga chain, using a loan of $1,000,000 from the Latino Bank, thanks to an endorsement from Omar Camero. Then in 1992, Camero and Durán worked as partners in a business called Dislaca, dedicated to food imports, distributing to

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

. In 1993 Duran bought his first aircraft, a

Cessna 206 The Cessna 205, 206 and 207, known primarily as the Stationair (and marketed variously as the Super Skywagon, Skywagon and Super Skylane), are a family of single-engined, general aviation aircraft with fixed landing gear, used in commercial air ...

. In 1997 Duran made a successful and lucrative high-risk investment in Tyco, making $275,000 from a $20,000 investment. The same year he went to Russia with

Citibank Citibank, N.A. ("N. A." stands for "National bank (United States), National Association"; stylized as citibank) is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of Citigroup, a financial services multinational corporation, multinational corporation. Ci ...

's vice-president to look for aircraft-related businesses, but came back having bought Russian bonds. During the tragedy in the state of Vargas, Durán and his business partner Carlos Kauffmann incorporated brigades for the victims and put their helicopters into use transporting victims to

and other cities, featured in a documentary for the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

. During the oil strike they also helped the poorest

n people. Through the company Ruibal & Durán, Durán and his partners are representatives and distributors of North American businesses in

, some of them specialized in selling equipment for the police department and the fire department.

Suitcase scandal

Durán was involved in the Suitcase scandal, an international drama over a suitcase carrying $800,000 in cash that was transferred from

Petróleos de Venezuela Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (acronym PDVSA, , English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and ...

(PDVSA) to Argentine then-presidential candidate

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and former politician who served as the 56th president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015, and later as the 37th Vice ...

in 2007. He was accused of working to cover-up the origins of the suitcase and subsequently tried in a U.S. federal court in Miami on charges of working illegally as a foreign agent of the Venezuelan government. In March 2009, Durán was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release and a fine of $175,000.

References

Argentina acusa a Washington de buscar quebrar relaciones en América Latina

CARACAS.- En una entrada de Wikipedia que deja pocas dudas sobre su autoría, Franklin Durán parece querer explicar lo que muchos se preguntan en Venezuela

* ttp://www.elnuevoherald.com/213/story/130691.html Venezolanos denuncian retención de $7 millones
Unidos por amistad dinero y aventuras

External links

Ruibal y Duran C.A Sitio Oficial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duran, Franklin Venezuelan businesspeople People from Caracas 1967 births Living people