He could not understand why Switzerlandhad lifted and violated banking secrecy, which had been one of the reasons he had chosen thiscountry for his investments. "Paula Castanon de Salinas went to go withdraw the money only because she wasfollowing my instructions, because we were sure that -- since the money had nothing to do withdrug trafficking -- the accounts hadn't been frozen. If I had been at all concerned, because myaccounts had somehow been linked to drug trafficking or because of the money that was said takenfrom the outcome of the devaluation of the Peso, I wouldn't have gotten my wife involved. Wenever expected that someone would have lied and that the accounts would be frozen for the crimeof drug trafficking. What we did know was that the Mexican authorities had learned of theexistence of a fake passport in the name of Juan Guillermo Gomez Gutierrez, and that the moneyhad to be moved.19 "I removed the contents of the safe deposit boxes only because we knew that the fakepassport that the Mexican authorities were looking for was in that safe deposit box, along withdocuments concerning Citibank, and if the Mexican authorities knew about the name JuanGuillermo Gomez Gutierrez, they had to be removed from that safe deposit box. Moreover, AmyEliot advised my wife to move those funds. I suppose that Ms. Eliot wanted to keep Citibank out ofthis problem, or had been advised of the accusation of drug trafficking, I don't know, but shehelped lead my wife into that trap, since we had trust in Swiss banking secrecy. Two factorscontributed largely to the decision to move those funds: the fact that the Mexican authorities knewabout the existence of the fake passport, and Ms. Eliot's advice.20Throughout the interrogation, Salinas denied that all the assets were his, asserting that hesimply managed the accounts. "I couldn't say that I was the owner or beneficiary of the totalamount," which is "on the order of $100 million,21 he stated. "T...
