KEY POINTS:
President Hugo Chavez threatened to expropriate a major Venezuelan company because of its owners' ties to a scandal involving the seizure of a suitcase stuffed with US$800,000 ($1.37 million) in cash.
A Miami jury is deliberating the case of Franklin Duran, a wealthy businessman who was a partner in Industrias Venoco, which makes lubricants and other petroleum-based products.
"The owners of this business, Venoco, are lending themselves to an action against the fatherland in the United States," Chavez said.
Duran has been accused of acting as an illegal foreign agent in the US to cover up the source and destination of the suitcase, which authorities seized last year in Argentina.
Prosecutors say Venezuela sent the cash to fund Argentine President Cristina Fernandez's election campaign.
