US money-laundering investigation forces Honduran newspaper owned by suspects to close

Ivan Rosales, center, comforts his co-worker Javier Servellon as Joel Funez looks down, outside the Diario Tiempo newspaper in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015. The Honduran newspaper Tiempo says it is temporarily closing after the government seized businesses belonging to the paper's owners, who are accused in the United States of money laundering. Tiempo has published for 45 years. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio) (The Associated Press)

Xiomara Mairena, journalist at the Diario Tiempo newspaper, reads her paper's last editorial that reads in Spanish: "So long, Honduras," outside of the newspaper's offices in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015. The Honduran newspaper Tiempo says it is temporarily closing after the government seized businesses belonging to the paper's owners, who are accused in the United States of money laundering. Tiempo has published for 45 years. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio) (The Associated Press)

Carlos Guillen sits next to his co-worker Arsenia Cruz as she wipes a tear outside the Diario Tiempo newspaper in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015. The Honduran newspaper says it is temporarily closing after the government seized businesses belonging to the paper's owners, who are accused in the United States of money laundering. Tiempo has published for 45 years. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio) (The Associated Press)

The Honduran newspaper Tiempo says it is temporarily closing after the government seized businesses belonging to the paper's owners, who are accused in the United States of money laundering.

Tiempo has published for 45 years.

In an editorial Tuesday entitled "So long, Honduras," the paper says the closure is due to "economic asphyxiation" caused by the freezing of bank accounts linked to the family of former Honduran Vice President Jaime Rosenthal. Rosenthal had warned he didn't have enough money on hand to pay salaries.

On Oct. 7, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Rosenthal, his son Yani Rosenthal and nephew Yankel Rosenthal under the Kingpin Act. U.S. prosecutors say they and companies in their Grupo Continental laundered money for drug traffickers.

The Rosenthals have denied the allegations.