Argentine Man Is Said to Be Source of Sanford E-Mail
BUENOS AIRES — The mystery of who revealed Gov. Mark Sanford’s e-mail messages may finally be solved. A business associate of Mr. Sanford’s Argentine mistress said Friday that private messages between the two lovers had been sent anonymously to a South Carolina newspaper last December by an Argentine man the mistress had briefly dated.
María Belén Chapur from a video widely circulating on the Internet.
The associate, who asked not to be identified, is a Buenos Aires television executive involved in hiring the woman, whom he identified as María Belén Chapur, a producer at the television network America from 2001 to 2002.
Last December, the executive said, Ms. Chapur was dating a young Argentine a few months after her affair with Mr. Sanford began. The man happened to see the e-mail messages being exchanged between the governor and Ms. Chapur, said the executive — who said he had direct knowledge of the situation — and hacked into her e-mail account to see the rest.
Infuriated, the man sent the messages to The State, the newspaper in South Carolina’s capital, Columbia.
When she found out, the executive said, Ms. Chapur immediately ended the relationship with the man, whose identity has not been disclosed.
In one of the published messages, dated July 9, 2008, Ms. Chapur wrote Mr. Sanford that she had seen another man.
“He is a very nice guy, great heart,” she wrote, “but unfortunately I am not in love with him. You are my love. Something hard to believe even for myself as it’s also a kind of impossible love, not only because of distance but situation.”
In publishing the e-mail messages this week, The State said they had been sent anonymously. Asked on Friday about the executive’s account of the source of the messages, Steve Brook, the managing editor, said he had no comment, adding only, “That’s interesting.” Joel Sawyer, the governor’s spokesman, also had no comment.
Ms. Chapur did not respond to messages left on her cellphone.
The executive said Ms. Chapur’s main role at the network was to monitor international press coverage of Argentina, preparing a summary each evening from the financial and European news media.
“She was a follower of international news,” the executive said, “an avid reader of foreign news and regularly attended policy seminars.” He said she spoke fluent English and French.
She appeared on the air only once, reporting from New York in October 2001 on the month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A video of her appearance, now widely circulating on the Internet, first appeared on Thursday afternoon on Argentine television.
Ms. Chapur, who has two sons and is separated from her husband, has since left the television business, the executive said.
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