of power, influence peddling and bribing TV stations. However, Kurlander claimed that he did nothing illegal and that the French government took similar steps to contact Montesinos. The French ambassador to Peru Antoine Blanca denied this, saying that Montesinos was on the CIA payroll and thus would side with the U.S-based company. After the fall of Fujimori in 2000, a number of videos Montesinos had taped of himself meeting with several domestic and foreign leaders and offering bribes and accepting them had emerged. In October 2005 Frontline in co-production with The New York Times found a February 1998 recording of a telephone conversation between Montesinos and Kurlander. The following is an excerpt from the tape: Kurlander:...we have a very serious problem in Peru with our company (Newmont) and Minera Buenaventura so I have enlisted the support of some of my friends from a variety of intelligence communities. I need it especially because the other side (the French government) has been acting quite strangely.Montesinos (to interpreter): Tell him that I am perfectly aware of the problem he has and the people he represents have with the French, as well as the problem he has with the judiciary.Kurlander: So now you have a friend for life. I want a friend for life.Montesinos (to interpreter): I thank you very much for what you have just told me and well you already have a friend. Tell him I'm going to help him with the voting. I would like to know the tricky practices of the French. The French Connection!Kurlander: The French Connection!(laughter)Along with this telephone conversation, Frontline and The New York Times re-broadcast three other videos. One was filmed in April 1998 and shows Montesinos talking to "Don Arabian", the CIA station chief in Peru, in an attempt to get CIA to pressure the U.S to back Newmont in the case. In the video Montesinos claimed to have found e-mails from Paris to Peru of French officials trying to influence the court to get a decision favorable to France. Another video recorded in May 1998 showed Montesinos meeting with Peruvian Supreme Court Justice and former classmate, Jaime Beltran Quiroga, in which Montesinos said that in the case between Newmont and BRGM state interests are at stake. He told Quiroga that if the decision went to Newmont, the United States would back Peru in its border dispute with Ecuador which had exploded into the Cenepa