Jimenez, who was once described by President Joseph Estrada as a corporate genius for engineering two of the biggest takeovers in the country’s history, will be taking Delta Air flight 7928 from New York to Seoul where he will catch Korean Air flight 621 to Manila.

In a Notification of Deportation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said no escort will accompany Jimenez during his return to the Philippines.

Jimenez, 59, was convicted on Nov. 14, 2003 in Miami, Florida, after he pleaded guilty to election conspiracy and tax evasion. On top of the jail sentence, he was ordered to pay a fine of $1.2 million.

Jimenez was indicted in the U.S. in April 1999, but he contested his extradition all the way to the Supreme Court. The tribunal junked Jimenez’s challenge in September 2002.

In December 2002, he offered “voluntary” extradition.

Jimenez came home months before the 1998 elections after making a fortune in the sale and distribution of computer sets in Latin America. U.S. officials said he returned to the Philippines to evade prosecution.

Jimenez reportedly contributed to the campaign chest of Estrada and ended up as a fixture in Malacañang, sporting the title of presidential adviser on Latin American affairs.

He was tagged as the broker in the $750 million acquisition of Philippine Long Distance Co. by the Hong Kong-based First Capital and Equitable Bank’s takeover of the much bigger PCIBank with the help of the Government Service Insurance System and the Social Security System.

Following the ouster of Estrada, Jimenez successfully ran in 2001 for the 6th district seat of Manila. He was unseated by the House Electoral Tribunal in 2002 for vote-buying.

Jimenez is reportedly eyeing to run for mayor of Manila in 2007. It was unclear if his conviction in the U.S. disqualifies him from running for public office.

Jimenez was born Mario Batacan Crespo on Dec. 31, 1946 in Paco, Manila.

In 1983, he was accused of estafa by a partner in an airfreight business.

By then Jimenez was already in the United States.

In 1988, he founded Future Tech International (FTI), a computer distribution company based in Miami, with extensive reach in Latin America.

International Business Online said FTI’s game plan was simple: approach high-tech manufacturers that had no presence in the region, negotiate exclusive distribution rights, and then sell and support their products with a sophistication rare in Latin America.

FTI carried the products of companies like Quantum, Maxtor, Canon, NEC, AMD, Hitachi and MarkVision, another Jimenez firm.

Starting out as a small computer components distributor, Future Tech at one time posted average annual revenues of $400 million.

The Florida court indictment papers said Jimenez set up several layers of companies as well. He created Mark Vision Holdings Inc., with headquarters in the British Virgin Islands, to conduct the same business that FTI used to do in some South American countries.

He also set up two MVH subsidiaries in Uruguay: MarkVision International, Inc., and Mark Vision Zona Franca.

Court documents also mentioned Kalisol, S.A., an Uruguay-based marketing firm purportedly owned by a Jimenez in-law, but which was allegedly controlled by Jimenez.

Kalisol, along with FTI, would later figure prominently in the U.S. extradition papers on Jimenez.

Jimenez has claimed he was part of a small group of Bill Clinton believers at a time when many were not giving the young Arkansas governor much chance to clinch the presidency.

And while Florida court records said his contributions to the 1995 Clinton/Gore campaign was only $25,000, the Associated Press cited U.S. Secret Service records showing that Jimenez was invited to the White House 12 times between 1994 and 1996.

Photos made available to the press by Jimenez showed him dining with Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Aside from the Clintons, Jimenez had claimed to be a friend to 17 Latin American heads of state.

Jimenez attributed his rapport with Estrada to his being “a straight shooter.”

Malacañang insiders during the Estrada Administration said that, among other things, Jimenez had mastered the tricks of humoring an ill-tempered president who bawls out even members of his Cabinet.

Said an insider of Jimenez: “Paluhod-luhod pa ‘yan. Maraming kuwento.”