VENEZUELA PROBES ALLEGED FOREIGN EXCHANGE FRAUD
  Banking authorities and police are
  investigating an alleged fraud by the second largest trading
  house in the Caracas free foreign exchange market, Finance
  Minister Manuel Azpurua told reporters.
      The Superintendency of Banks and the Technical and Judicial
  Police have both begun probes of Cambio la Guiara, Azpurua said
  on Friday night.
      Police said the owners of the firm, Mario Muggia and his
  brother Luigi Muggia, have left Venezuela.
      Cambio la Guiara operated in part on the "parallel market" in
  which traders buy and sell dollars among themselves.
      The Venezuelan central bank on June 17 suspended the
  licences of all 21 foreign exchange operators in the parallel
  market, blaming their speculation for the constant rise in the
  value of the U.S. Dollar here.
      Juan Domingo Cordero, vice-president of the Caracas Stock
  Exchange and the owner of a foreign exchange trading house,
  said on Friday he had begun legal action against Cambio la
  Guiara for issuing him four checks without funds for a total
  amount of almost one mln dlrs.
      The Cambio la Guiara exchange house had operated in
  Venezuela for more than 20 years.
  

