Miami ? The Key Biscayne condominium had a wine room, beachfront access and breathtaking ocean views, and it was owned not by a Hollywood starlet, or a hot new fashion designer, or a South Beach nightclub impresario, but by a former Nicaraguan official accused of helping steal more than $100 million from his country.

And instead of serving as a luxury hideaway, the condo was seized by U.S. officials and sold, with the $2.7 million in proceeds set aside to build four modern, computer-equipped schools in Nicaragua for about 2,100 students.

Juan Fernando Ramirez, a senior official with Nicaragua’s education ministry, said the schools would have a symbolic meaning for all Nicaraguans: “They shall by themselves become a landmark about the struggle against corruption in Nicaragua.”

The case brought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement against Byron Jerez, Nicaragua’s former tax chief, is one of about two dozen investigations under way among U.S. officials in Miami to track and seize assets belonging to corrupt Latin American officials.

“The message to me is, they’ll be held responsible for what they did,” said Richard Kolbusz, assistant agent in charge of ICE’s Miami office, home to the nation’s first Foreign Corruption Task Force. “There will be a big deterrent in that.”

The stepped-up law enforcement initiative coincides with a broader effort by banks and investment houses to prevent people known in the trade as PEPs — for “politically exposed persons” — from using U.S. accounts to launder or hide ill-gotten gains from foreign countries. For decades, many banks allowed corrupt officials to open and use such accounts with no questions asked.

In one sign of the increased scrutiny, the number of “suspicious activity reports” filed by banks and other financial institutions with the government rose 25 percent during the first half of 2004 compared with the same period the year before.

Earlier this year, Riggs Bank, a venerable Washington institution that once held dozens of accounts for foreign embassies and individuals, agreed to pay $41 million in fines for failing to report suspicious transactions involving former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The view from the balcony of the luxury condominium owned by Nicaraguan official Byron Jerez in Key Biscayne, Fla., is shown in this undated photo provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The condo was seized by U.S. officials and sold, and the .7 million in proceeds were set aside to build four modern computer-equipped public schools in Nicaragua for about 2,100 students.

Miami has long been used by Latin American smugglers, embezzlers and drug dealers to launder their profits. Some officials steal from their own governments and move to South Florida, snapping up luxury homes, cars and planes and living in high style.

“In totality, we’re talking about billions and billions of dollars,” said Miami ICE supervisory agent Eddie Agrait. “When you weigh that against the poverty you find in many of these countries, it’s a shock that it could happen.”

The Homeland Security Department, of which ICE is a part, is forming similar task forces in New York and Los Angeles to trace funds stolen by corrupt officials mainly from Europe and Asia. Using new powers authorized in the Patriot Act, the task forces focus more intently on this form of money laundering than sporadic enforcement efforts of the past have.