Franklin Durán (born 12 September 1967 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan entrepreneur, implicated in the "suitcase scandal" between Argentina and Venezuela, and charged by the United States Department of Justice with being an illegal agent of a foreign government.
Durán's first big business deal was the sale of Sony equipment and microwaves to the Pepeganga chain, using a loan of $1,000,000 from the Latino Bank, thanks to an endorsement from Omar Camero.
Then in 1992, Camero and Durán worked as partners in a business called Dislaca, dedicated to food imports, distributing to Procter & Gamble.
The same year he went to Russia with Citibank's vice-president to look for aircraft-related businesses, but came back having bought Russian bonds.
[2][3] In March 2009, Durán was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release and a fine of $175,000.