several scandals took place during the kirchner administration. the first involved the detention of venezuelan-american businessman antonini wilson in an airport after being found with a suitcase filled with $800,000. this money was illegally provided by petróleos de venezuela, the state oil company, to be used for kirchner's 2007 general election campaign. details of the case were explained by businessman carlos kauffmann and lawyer moisés maiónica, who pleaded guilty. the fpv financing of the 2007 elections caused another scandal years later. three pharmaceutical businessmen, sebastián forza, damián ferrón, and leopoldo bina, were found dead in 2008, a case known as the "triple crime". further investigation of forza, who contributed $200,000 to the campaign, identified him as a provider of ephedrine to the sinaloa cartel. in 2015, martín lanatta and josé luis salerno, convicted for the killings, claimed that aníbal fernández was the boss of a mafia ring that ordered those killings to secure the illegal traffic of ephedrine. fernández denied the charges, maintaining that it was a set up to undermine his chances in the 2015 general election. general illegal drug trade grew in argentina during kirchnerism, and saw mexican and colombian syndicates working with peruvian and bolivian smugglers. conviction rates for money laundering were almost nonexistent. mariano federici, head of the financial information unit, said that the "magnitude of the threat is very serious, and this would never have been possible without collaboration from government officials in this country".