Counts one to 14 each carries a penalty of not more than five years imprisonment, for a total of 70 years. Counts 15 to 47 carry a jail term of not more than a year each, which sums up to 32 years. All in all, it’s 102 years for the 54-year-old Manila congressman if US courts find him guilty.
The offenses were allegedly committed between September 1994 and March 1998.
A warrant for his arrest was issued in April 1999 by Judge Robert Dube of the US district court of South Florida. Two months later, Washington formally sought assistance from the Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, for his arrest and extradition to the United States.
He however sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Manila regional trial court and was allowed provisional liberty after posting bail for P1 million, which the Supreme Court early this week overruled paving the way for his immediate arrest and eventual return to the US.
"In extradition cases, bail is not a matter of right; it is subject to the judicial discretion in the context of the peculiar facts of the case," wrote Associate Justice Artemio Panganiban in the decision.
"We cannot allow our country to be a haven for fugitives, cowards and weaklings who, instead of facing the consequences of their actions, choose to run and hide," the SC ruled with finality.
Philippine Mabuhay News, a Filipino-American Newspaper in San Diego, in its latest (Dec. 16-31, 2002) issue, reported that Jimenez is actually on the watchlist of Latino Mafiosis who are now "on red alert" and watching major US ports for his return.
In the exclusive report, the newspaper quoted an unnamed source who was identified only as an estranged confidante of the Manila congressman, as saying that "Jimenez was not afraid of facing charges in the US since his lawyers, headed by legal luminary Kenneth Starr, the private prosecutor in the President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky affair, assured him that they can keep him out of jail."
"The real reason Mark Jimenez is hell-bent on not going back to the United States is because he is scared that the ‘companies’ he had done business with in Latin America will make sure that he will not squeal on them," the newspaper reported.
It added that "the source explained that the companies were actually owned by drug lords based in several countries in South America, particularly Colombia, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
Jimenez’s dark past may indeed now be catching up with him.
Based on the indictment papers issued against him in Florida in 1999 as reported by the Manila-based Newsbreak magazine, his Future Tech International Inc. (FTI) transferred some US$5 million outside the US but evaded tax payments by using an Uruguayan marketing services company — Kalisol — as front.
The company, reportedly owned by a relative, regularly billed FTI for nonexistent or fictitious marketing services, which was correspondingly reflected in FTI’s tax returns as "advertising expenses."
After the funds were transferred to FTI, they find their way again to another Jimenez-owned company, Mark Vision Holdings (MVH) or to several of his personal accounts in Uruguay. But these were not reflected in his personal returns, thus evading taxes of approximately $3.5 million.
Quantum Corp., a computer hard drives manufacturer who had contracts with both FTI and MVH, was said to be led to believe that Kalisol was an advertising agency not in any way related to Jimenez or any of his companies. And from Quantum, Jimenez allegedly fraudulently obtained US$600,000 in advertising credits.
On the political front, Jimenez was also charged with making illegal contributions, worth $100,0000, to the campaign fund of the Democratic National Center for the presidential campaign of former US President Bill Clinton and his vice president Al Gore, which was cited as a "charitable contribution" in his income tax return.
Jimenez, the indictment papers stated, has also caused $6,000 from FTI’s corporate funds to be unlawfully contributed to the campaign funds of Democratic senators including Edwin Kennedy by disguising them as employee contributions.
Considering the penalty attached to the offenses, Justice Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez said that there is great risk that Jimenez will flee again. "There is the likelihood of flight," she said.
The DOJ official told the High Tribunal there are 80 witnesses in the US who are willing to testify in the grand jury proceedings, which included relatives and many others, as per the information provided them by their US counterparts.