to federal law enforcement officials of the United States. In 1994, Halvorssen wrote a Wall Street Journal editorial recounting his ordeal and explained that prior to his arrest he had been investigating Banco Latino for money laundering and for being a Ponzi scheme. Halvorssen explained that he was arrested in Caracas one day after a Banco Latino official asked him to come to Venezuela from New York for a meeting with the bank's chairman. Halvorssen was warned by a U.S. Treasury Department agent that the meeting with Banco Latino was a trap. Halvorssen went anyway and was arrested. Banco Latino went on to become the largest bank fraud in Venezuelan history. In GQ magazine, Isabel Hilton also covers Halvorssen's investigation of Orlando Castro Llanes, a Venezuelan businessman of Cuban descent and owner of the Grupo Progreso. Hilton states that Castro was involved in arranging the false arrest of Halvorssen and the media campaign to destroy his reputation. According to Hilton, Castro was linked as a money laundering partner to drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in a letter written by Escobar to his attorney; the authenticity of the letter is questioned by Castro's attorney. Castro had visited Halvorssen in prison with his son who beat Halvorssen while he was handcuffed to a chair. Wire reports and newspaper articles written during his time in prison portrayed Halvorssen as guilty and corrupt. A framework of opinion was created to destroy any credibility Halvorssen could have when testifying in a court of law in the United States. Regarding the charges of terrorism she writes: "In reality, the police case against Halvorssen was non-existent…He was completely exonerated." Armando Valladares describes Halvorssen's decision to serve as anti-Drug Czar as "quixotic" for having "simultaneously took on the entire banking sector without a budget or structural support in the government." Intrigue and mutual accusations Three weeks after Halvorssen's release, Banco Latino folded and its directors were charged with numerous crimes. They are still fugitives. Depositors lost billions of dollars. Orlando Castro Llanes fled Venezuela and was ultimately extradited from Miami to New York to face charges of grand larceny and theft. Castro's own banks also collapsed leaving depositors unable to recuperate their savings. On April 4, 1996, Castro Llanes was indicted in New York by District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Castro's son and grandson were also arrested on charges of a scheme to defraud in the first degree. They were