Latin America correspondent Joshua Goodman exclusively reported details of an internal investigation finding that a former Trump official, president of Latin America’s biggest development bank, had an inappropriate romantic relationship with his chief of staff — a scoop followed hours later by the bank directors’ vote to recommend firing the executive.
Goodman had been reporting for months on the anonymous allegations surrounding Inter-American Development Bank President Mauricio Claver-Carone. Other major news organizations were chasing the story as well — the bank disburses as much as $23 billion every year to alleviate poverty in the region — but Goodman broke the story when he recently obtained a law firm’s 21-page report finding evidence of a relationship that existed since at least 2019.
Exhibit A for establishing that relationship was a “contract” that the two purportedly drew up on the back of a restaurant place mat in which they outlined a timeline for divorcing their spouses and getting married. “We deserve absolute happiness. May only God part w/ this covenant,” read the contract, a photo of which was provided to investigators by the woman’s former husband.
The report faulted Claver-Carone for making employment decisions about someone with whom he had been romantically involved, including a 40% pay raise in a year. For his part, the executive has denied ever having a relationship with his aide and said the investigation was seriously flawed. But two days after the recommendation to fire Claver-Carone, the bank’s board voted definitively to terminate his employment.