The Honduran finance minister has stepped down after his wife was arrested with the equivalent of some $50,000 in her car, a violation of embezzlement laws.

Police stopped Dinora Arambury, wife of Hector Guillen, as she headed from the capital to the city of San Pedro Sula on Monday.

Arambury was briefly arrested after police found over a million Honduran lempiras in cash in a suitcase.

Guillen “has courageously submitted his definitive resignation,” Interior Minister Africo Madrid told reporters on Wednesday.

He noted that the authorities had determined that Arambury’s behavior was “not outside the realm of law.”

But the discovery caused a firestorm in the impoverished Central American country, where it is illegal for an individual to transport more than $10,000.

Guillen, who in February replaced William Chong Wong as finance minister, said the money his wife was transporting was intended as a loan for a business in San Pedro Sula.

Deputy Finance Minister Carlos Borjas temporarily will fill Guillen’s post until he is formally replaced, officials said.

Source: MSN