Rep. Burton Met Banker Related to 2 Indicted on Drug Counts

WASHINGTON — Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who heads the House investigation of 1996 campaign fund-raising irregularities, discussed U.S. allegations of drug-money laundering on the Caribbean island of Aruba in 1995 with an Aruban banker whose brother and cousin had been indicted on federal drug charges.

Burton spokesman Kevin Binger said the congressman, who has recently come under fire for his own fund-raising practices, would not have met the banker had he known of the indictments.

“We should have done a better job” of preparing for the meeting, which was requested by the banker’s Washington lobbyist, Binger said. “The staff was not very responsible in not checking that out.” Burton, who then chaired the House International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, received no Aruban-connected campaign donations, Binger added. Burton declined to be interviewed.

The Clinton White House has been embarrassed by revelations that a convicted stock swindler and a convicted drug dealer were among campaign donors invited to the White House because no one checked their backgrounds. Burton has aggressively probed such Democratic improprieties while fending off a series of allegations about his own campaign donors.

While on a visit to Puerto Rico in April 1995, Burton had dinner with Carlo Mansur, managing director of Interbank Aruba NV, and Glenbert F. Croes, deputy prime minister of Aruba.

“It was basically a meeting to brief the congressman, who was the new chairman of the subcommittee, on Aruba’s efforts to resolve problems with money laundering,” Binger said. Burton frequently met officials of foreign governments under his subcommittee’s jurisdiction, he added.

Mansur’s brother Eric and cousin Alex were among dozens of individuals indicted in San Juan in August 1994 on a variety of drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges. One U.S. official said the U.S. and Aruban governments have discussed extraditing Aruban nationals, including Alex and Eric Mansur, who face federal charges.

Carlo Mansur has not been charged with any federal crimes. In a telephone interview from Aruba this week, he said of his family, “We don’t have anything to hide.”