Fugitive Financier Robert Vesco Arrested in Cuba
Fugitive financier Robert Vesco has been arrested in Cuba, where he has lived the past decade after fleeing the United States, Clinton Administration sources said Thursday night.
The sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Vesco has been taken into custody by Cuban authorities after his relationship with Fidel Castro’s government “turned difficult” in recent months.
ABC News quoted U.S. officials as saying Vesco “went into the cocaine business” in Cuba and that this would be the basis for the criminal charges he would face when he returned to the United States.
Vesco, now 59, fled the United States in 1972 to avoid prosecution on charges that the bilked investors in a Switzerland-based mutual fund out of an estimated $224 million.
He led a nomadic existence for a decade, moving from one country to another just before U.S. extradition papers arrived, before settling in Havana in 1982.
U.S. law enforcement officials have previously said there are 91 American fugitives living in Cuba, and ABC said Cuba’s decision to kick out Vesco was the result of secret negotiations between Washington and Havana over the past year.
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