Fugitives: U.S. Efforts to Find Miguel Recarey (Letter Report, 12/21/94,
GAO/OSI-95-7).
In October 1985, Miguel G. Recarey, Jr., former President and Chairman
of the Board of International Medical Centers, Inc., failed to appear
for a hearing in U.S. District Court in Florida on charges of bribing an
officer of an employee welfare fund, bribing a potential federal grand
jury witness, and illegal wiretapping. Mr. Recarey fled the United
States in October 1987, beginning an international fugitive
investigative effort covering at least three continents and 11
countries. This report discusses whether (1) the Departments of Justice
and State made a good-faith effort to locate and gain custody of Mr.
Recarey, (2) Justice Department officials contacted the Venezuelan
government on this matter, (3) the Venezuelan government told the U.S.
government that it had tried to find Mr. Recarey, and (4) the U.S.
government followed standard operating procedures to locate and gain
custody of Mr. Recarey.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: OSI-95-7
TITLE: Fugitives: U.S. Efforts to Find Miguel Recarey
DATE: 12/21/94
SUBJECT: Law enforcement agencies
Crimes or offenses
Police communications operations
International cooperation
Information dissemination operations
Criminals
International organizations
Foreign governments
Extradition
IDENTIFIER: Interpol Red Notice System
Venezuela
******************************************************************
** This file contains an ASCII representation of the text of a **
** GAO report. Delineations within the text indicating chapter **
** titles, headings, and bullets are preserved. Major **
** divisions and subdivisions of the text, such as Chapters, **
** Sections, and Appendixes, are identified by double and **
** single lines. The numbers on the right end of these lines **
** indicate the position of each of the subsections in the **
** document outline. These numbers do NOT correspond with the **
** page numbers of the printed product. **
** **
** No attempt has been made to display graphic images, although **
** figure captions are reproduced. Tables are included, but **
** may not resemble those in the printed version. **
** **
** Please see the PDF (Portable Document Format) file, when **
** available, for a complete electronic file of the printed **
** document's contents. **
** **
** A printed copy of this report may be obtained from the GAO **
** Document Distribution Center. For further details, please **
** send an e-mail message to: **
** **
** **
** **
** with the message 'info' in the body. **
******************************************************************
Cover
================================================================ COVER
Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Ways and
Means, House of Representatives
December 1994
FUGITIVES - U.S. EFFORTS TO FIND
MIGUEL RECAREY
GAO/OSI-95-7
U.S. Efforts to Find Miguel Recarey
(600263)
Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV
FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigations
GAO - General Accounting Office
IMTEC - Information Management and Technology Division
INTERPOL - International Criminal Police Organization
OIA - Office of International Affairs
OSI - Office of Special Investigations
USNCB - U.S. National Central Bureau
Letter
=============================================================== LETTER
B-259512
December 21, 1994
The Honorable Fortney H. (Pete) Stark
Chairman, Subcommittee on Health
Committee on Ways and Means
House of Representatives
Dear Mr. Chairman:
This report responds to your July 13, 1992, request that we look into
the U.S. government's handling of the Miguel G. Recarey, Jr.,
fugitive case. Specifically, you asked that we determine (1) whether
the Departments of Justice and State had made good-faith efforts to
locate and gain custody of Mr. Recarey, (2) whether Department of
Justice officials contacted the government of Venezuela on this
issue, (3) whether the Venezuelan government told the U.S.
government that it had tried to find Mr. Recarey, and (4) whether
the U.S. government followed standard operating procedures to locate
and gain custody of Mr. Recarey.
BACKGROUND
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :1
In October 1987, Miguel G. Recarey, Jr., former President and
Chairman of the Board of International Medical Centers, Inc., failed
to appear for a hearing in U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of Florida in Miami on charges of bribing an officer of an
employee welfare fund; bribing a potential federal grand jury
witness; and illegal wiretapping. Mr. Recarey was also indicted, in
February 1988, on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States;
obtaining by fraud and misapplying U.S. government funds; wire
fraud; and false statements concerning Medicare payments received by
International Medical Centers, Inc. In October 1987, Mr. Recarey
fled the United States, beginning an international fugitive
investigative effort covering at least 3 continents and 11 countries.
SUMMARY OF OSI INVESTIGATION
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :2
We conducted a limited review of the U.S. government's efforts to
locate and gain custody of Miguel Recarey. The Departments of
Justice and State declined, at the insistence of the Department of
Justice, to provide us access to all necessary files because the U.S.
government's investigation was ongoing. Thus, we could not determine
whether the Departments of Justice and State followed standard
operating procedures in this matter.
From the information available to us, it appears that the Departments
of Justice and State made good-faith efforts to locate and gain
custody of Miguel Recarey. However, in view of information
indicating that Mr. Recarey was outside the United States, we
question the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) decision not to
request a "Red Notice" from the International Criminal Police
Organization (INTERPOL). Red Notices help foreign law enforcement
officials identify and locate fugitives\1 and are also considered by
many countries as authority to detain wanted persons.
As the lead investigative agency in this fugitive matter, the FBI's
effort was continuous, culminating in Mr. Recarey's capture by the
Spanish police on October 6, 1993, in Madrid, Spain. As of November
1994, the Spanish Court had not decided whether to honor the U.S.
government's request for Mr. Recarey's extradition to the United
States.
Also, the Department of State's Office of Law Enforcement and
Intelligence took appropriate steps in responding to requests for
assistance made by the Department of Justice in this matter. Our
review of Department of State documents on communications between the
U.S. government and the government of Venezuela indicates that the
Departments of State and Justice contacted the government of
Venezuela on the Recarey matter. The Venezuelan government responded
to the inquiries and informed the U.S. government that it would
endeavor to be of assistance.
Information we received showed that Mr. Recarey may have used his
influence with some Venezuelan government officials to avoid
detention and arrest. The principal difficulties encountered by U.S.
government law enforcement agencies in locating and gaining custody
of Mr. Recarey were associated with his apparent ability to bribe
foreign government officials and circulate incorrect information in
attempts to confuse and mislead agents in their pursuit of leads.
--------------------
\1 See INTERPOL: Information on the Red Notice System
(GAO/IMTEC-93-23, Mar. 29, 1993) for further information concerning
Red Notices.
FBI EFFORTS TO LOCATE AND GAIN
CUSTODY OF RECAREY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :3
The FBI's Miami Division led the Recarey fugitive investigation, and
FBI legal attach�s working in five different foreign locations were
involved at various times during the course of the investigation.
Other FBI units that participated in the case were the White Collar
Crime Section, Criminal Investigative Division; the Violent
Crimes-Fugitive Unit of the Violent Crimes and Major Offenders
Section, Criminal Investigative Division, FBI Headquarters; and the
Office of Liaison and International Affairs.
The FBI developed or received hundreds of investigative leads over
the 6-year period that Mr. Recarey was a fugitive. According to the
FBI case agent, each lead was evaluated and followed up, where
warranted; but most leads did not produce positive results. Federal
law enforcement agencies requested information or assistance from
officials in at least 11 countries in tracking down investigative
leads. These requests included information or queries about Mr.
Recarey's physical location, movements and travel by Mr. Recarey or
family members, modes of transportation, financial interests and
assets, business associates, and personal relationships.
The FBI did not request a Red Notice from INTERPOL, although the FBI
had information indicating that Mr. Recarey was traveling outside
the United States. FBI headquarters officials told us that decisions
on whether to request a Red Notice are initiated at the field office
level. The FBI had coordinated with INTERPOL-U.S. National Central
Bureau (USNCB) and relied on the FBI's legal attach� system to affect
liaison with INTERPOL and foreign police agencies in this fugitive
case. However, the use of a Red Notice can increase the possibility
of locating and apprehending fugitives because it systematically
provides information, such as the fugitive's identity and pending
criminal charges, to all INTERPOL member countries. The information
can be incorporated into each country's border-lookout system so that
when a fugitive, such as Mr. Recarey, seeks admission to another
country, the fugitive can be stopped at the point of entry.
For several months following Mr. Recarey's flight from justice, the
FBI worked on investigative leads that suggested Mr. Recarey might
be in one or more countries. By the summer of 1988, the FBI had
received sufficient information indicating Mr. Recarey was living
openly in Caracas, Venezuela. The FBI made a request to the
Venezuelan government, through the Departments of Justice and State,
for Mr. Recarey's provisional arrest\2 in anticipation of his
extradition to the United States. After receiving assurances from
the Venezuelan government that Mr. Recarey would be arrested, the
FBI sent two agents to Caracas in October 1988 to coordinate the
capture. However, Mr. Recarey was not arrested because, according
to the FBI, Venezuelan officials said that they could not find him.
In 1989 and 1990, following investigative leads relating to Mr.
Recarey's business ventures, the FBI again developed information that
placed Mr. Recarey in Venezuela. Twice more, FBI agents traveled to
Caracas to aid in locating and capturing Mr. Recarey--again he could
not be found. The FBI later heard from sources that Mr. Recarey was
able to bribe high-level foreign security officials to provide him
advance warning and protection against U.S. government efforts to
have him deported or extradited.
In late 1991, the FBI received information that indicated Mr.
Recarey had left Venezuela and moved to Spain. In January 1992,
after corroborating the information, the FBI requested that the
Department of State ask the Spanish government to arrest and detain
Mr. Recarey for extradition to the United States. However, Spanish
government officials responded that they did not believe they had
sufficient evidence of Mr. Recarey's presence in Spain.
During our work, we obtained new information from confidential
sources concerning Mr. Recarey's whereabouts and movements. We
shared this information with the FBI. Shortly thereafter, FBI
special agents pinpointed Mr. Recarey's location and convinced
Spanish authorities of his presence in Spain. On October 6, 1993,
the Spanish police arrested Mr. Recarey in Madrid, Spain. The FBI
case agent in the Miami Division assisted the U.S. Attorney's Office
and U.S. Embassy officials to have Mr. Recarey extradited from
Spain to the United States. On November 10, 1994, Mr. Recarey was
released from a Spanish jail under court supervision. A Department
of Justice official told us that the U.S. government is continuing
with extradition efforts and anticipates a decision by the Spanish
Court on the U.S. government's extradition request before the end of
1994.
--------------------
\2 A provisional arrest is the immediate arrest of a fugitive to
prevent further flight while documents and evidence in support of a
formal request for extradition are prepared.
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS WHO
ASSISTED IN RECAREY'S CAPTURE
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :4
The Recarey matter was a multiagency investigation, with the FBI
having primary responsibility for locating and gaining custody of Mr.
Recarey. Other organizations that participated included the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida; Miami
Organized Crime Strike Force; U.S. Marshals Service; Office of
International Affairs (OIA), Criminal Division, Department of
Justice; Drug Enforcement Administration; INTERPOL-USNCB; Office of
Labor Racketeering, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of
Labor; and Department of State's Office of Law Enforcement and
Intelligence and Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
OIA supported two separate requests by the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Miami and the FBI to assist with formal requests to foreign
governments for provisional arrest pending extradition. OIA
attorneys continue to assist U.S. efforts in gaining custody of Mr.
Recarey. The Department of Justice recently established a new group
within OIA to focus on significant and well-known U.S. fugitives,
such as Mr. Recarey, and foreign fugitives.
The Department of State's Office of Law Enforcement and Intelligence
coordinated U.S. government requests for provisional arrest pending
extradition of Mr. Recarey from Venezuela and from Spain. Finally,
Regional Security Officers from the Department's Bureau of Diplomatic
Security also helped the FBI in this matter.
METHODOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------ Letter :5
We interviewed individuals who had information about the
investigation, including officials from the OIA, FBI, U.S. Marshals
Service, INTERPOL-USNCB, and Department of State. We also
interviewed former and current officials working for federal law
enforcement agencies involved in the Recarey matter, state and local
law enforcement officials, and other persons having relevant
information about Mr. Recarey or the fugitive investigation.
OIA gave us a chronology, listing significant events in the Recarey
fugitive case. The FBI provided written responses to our questions
about its handling of the case. At the Department of State, we
reviewed Office of Law Enforcement and Intelligence files that the
Department of State identified as relevant to the Recarey fugitive
matter.
---------------------------------------------------------- Letter :5.1
As arranged with your office, we will make this report available to
others upon request. If you have questions concerning this report,
please contact me or Assistant Director Barney Gomez of my staff on
(202) 512-6722.
Sincerely yours,
Richard C. Stiener
Director
*** End of document. ***