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- BUSINESS, Page 41Business NotesSCANDALSThis Job Is Jinxed
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- In Argentina the post of Economic Minister has become
- almost as star-crossed as the hyperinflated economy. The
- previous officeholder, Miguel Roig, 68, died July 14, just six
- days after he joined the Cabinet of incoming President Carlos
- Saul Menem. Roig's successor, businessman Nestor Rapanelli, 60,
- had been on the job only three days last week when newspaper
- reports disclosed that a judge in Venezuela had put out a
- warrant for his arrest in connection with a $6 billion
- trade-fraud scheme.
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- The crime allegedly took place in 1985 and 1986, when
- Rapanelli, who has denied any wrongdoing, managed Gramoven, a
- Venezuelan affiliate of the Argentine agribusiness giant Bunge
- y Born. The judge charged that Gramoven had overbilled Caracas
- for grain. Venezuela is unlikely to prosecute the minister,
- however, because the two countries have no extradition treaty.
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