SALON

Tuesday, Nov 27, 2012 1:00 AM UTC

Bolivia: arrest in sale of jailed America’s rice

By

Topics: From the Wires,

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — A high-ranking Bolivian official was arrested Monday for alleged illegal enrichment from the sale of rice seized from a U.S. businessman who has been jailed for 18 months without charge.

The American, Jacob Ostreicher, was arrested in a money-laundering investigation but no evidence has been presented in court to support the case against him. He claims his incarceration has allowed corrupt officials to fleece him, seizing 18 tons of rice from his farming venture and selling most of it.

The man arrested Monday and accused of receiving $9,900 in proceeds in a personal bank account from the sale of some of Ostreicher’s rice is Jose Manuel Antezana, an official in the Presidential Ministry who was named to the board of directors of the state-run Cartonbol cardboard company in 2010.

Prosecutor Javier Monasterios told reporters that authorities were investigating others in the case.

Ostreicher told The Associated Press that prosecutors told him there would be more arrests and that 11 people “who work for the government are under suspicion” for allegedly abuses of authority in his case.

“I’m very concerned that now that the story is finally going to break that, with 11 government officials involved in corruption, some officials are going to think that what better way to get rid of me but to kill me,” Ostreicher said from a clinic in the eastern city of Santa Cruz.

“So I have concern right now about not only my physical health but my safety,” added Ostreicher, 54.

Ostreicher has been treated for malnutrition at the clinic from a liquids-only hunger strike he mounted to protest his incarceration.

After a Halloween visit from the actor Sean Penn, Ostreicher was sent to the clinic, where he says he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

U.S. diplomats and New Jersey congressman Christopher Smith have also been visiting Ostreicher, an orthodox Jew from Brooklyn, N.Y., and interceding on his behalf.

The Associated Press has repeatedly questioned senior Bolivian officials about the case since last year, including its foreign minister and interior minister. The officials had said only that they would look into it.

A judge denied Ostreicher bail on Friday, but the New York man said he expected a new hearing next week.

Under Bolivian law, suspects may not be jailed for more than 18 months without charge.

Earlier this year, the regional director of DIRCABI, the state agency in charge of seized assets, was fired over the illegal sale of Ostreicher’s rice.

The American says he went to Bolivia to salvage a rice-growing investment after the local manager, whom he described as a Colombian con artist, defrauded investors and planted some of their rice on land owned by the brother of a Brazilian drug trafficker.

Prosecutors initially alleged that the $25 million invested in the rice venture was obtained illegally.

But they subsequently failed to present evidence supporting the allegations and authorities in Switzerland have vouched for Ostreicher’s Swiss business associate, Andre Zolty.

Ostreicher said he suspected from the moment of his arrest that Bolivian officials saw in him a golden opportunity to strip of all their assets a pair of foreign investors who had no clue how perilous Bolivian agribusiness would prove for them.

___

Associated Press Writer Frank Bajak in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report

More Paola Flores.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
164 points165 points | 97 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
157 points158 points | 102 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
81 points82 points | 21 comments
vote
Wikipedia’s anti-Pagan crusade
14 points15 points | 13 comments
vote
Developers evict historic women’s shelter to build luxury hotel - The 104-yr-old Anna Louise Inn has ended its 2-year legal battle with a Fortune 500 company & will now move. Many view the victory of the insurance company over a community touchstone as a major blow to the city.
12 points13 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations