He made the match no doubt to try to get money, as he married Lady Alice, the widow of a man who had amassed a significant illicit fortune.

(Developing countries do not have a monopoly on misdeeds; banks in London were linked to the inquiry into President Abacha's illicit fortune.)

At the time of his capture, Italian law did not yet allow authorities to confiscate criminals' illicit fortunes, although this has since changed.

Since mid-2004, investigations in the United States and in Chile have uncovered an illicit fortune of more than $27 million that he hid abroad.

"Even though you know it was all the result of a private concubine plot, a scheme to reap illicit fortunes by catering to wealthy and unscrupulous potentates?"

In another development, the wife of a close aide to Mr. Montesinos and his secretary have been arrested on suspicion of amassing an illicit fortune, the judicial police said.

The amount said to be diverted, about $22,000, was small compared with the illicit multimillion-dollar fortunes senior military officers amassed in the past, but General Duperval's timing was regarded as inopportune.

But two years ago, they were surprised to discover that he had also amassed an illicit fortune.

Despite being supposedly at death's door, the mobster immediately fled to Brazil with his illicit fortune and his family.

All of the talk of his illicit fortune and opposition to democracy was the result of a Western propaganda war being unjustly waged against him, said Mr. Mobutu.