A group of Miami lawyers claim that US justice delivers the money diverted from PDVSA to the Venezuelan people

These last years US justice has confiscated hundreds of millions of dollars from officials of Chavez who have invested huge sums – stolen from the vaults of the Venezuelan government – on American soil. Now, a group of Miami lawyers is looking for this money, mainly diverted from the national oil company PDVSA, to deliver it to the Venezuelan population.

According to US laws, Venezuela, as a sovereign state, is not a "victim" of embezzlement crimes.

The most recent case and one of the most resonant is that of Alejandro Andrade, former treasurer of Venezuela, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to having participated in a billion dollar money laundering scheme alongside Venezuelan TV magnate Raúl Gorrín. A South Florida District Court sentenced him to ten years in prison and to He confiscated a billion dollars that he had invested in an equestrian farm, horses, luxury cars and bank accounts in this American state.

Last November, when the conviction was announced, Prosecutors in the case have clarified that these badets belong to the US Treasurys, not the Government of Venezuela.

L & # 39; lawyer William Tunkey He is a partner in a Miami law firm and has extensive experience in the defense of criminal cases. Although he avoided identifying his Venezuelan client, according to the slogan The new heraldIts goal is to recover these hundreds of millions of dollars – not just from Andrade, but many other "kleptocrats" – and to target them to the Venezuelan people, who are going through the worst crisis in the country's history.

The only thing that confirmed this person in question is that it is not aligned with the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro, but he also did not specify when he was close to interim President Juan Guaidó.

Just as they expect the already stolen money to be sent to the Venezuelan people, the lawyers hope that any other money that the federal authorities will seize in the future will also have the real victims as beneficiaries. This motion was presented this month in a local court, reports the New Herald

The case of Andrade being already solved, Tunkey has submitted an application for access to badets seized in another case pending in Miami. in which nine officials, businessmen and investment managers are accused of having exploited a $ 1,200 million money laundering scheme during the Maduro presidency. Only two of the accused pleaded guilty; the rest are on the run or detained outside the United States.

Lawyers demanded "victim status" for Venezuelan people before July conviction Abraham Edgardo Ortega, former CEO of PDVSA, who has accepted bribes in exchange for permission to access the foreign exchange system of the state oil company. Ortega pleaded guilty in late October for accepting $ 12 million in bribes. Faced with this case, the lawyers, through a lawsuit, asked the federal district judge Kathleen Williams hold a hearing to determine Venezuela's losses as a result of Ortega's behavior: "Venezuela will request restitution and suggest that any money recovered be paid into a third-party managed account … for the benefit of the people Venezuelan."

This petition adds to the bills introduced in the US Congress for the same purpose. This month, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, one of the most active in the Venezuelan cause, has urged the TRUTH Act (Venezuelan Law on Emergency Relief, Assistance to Democracy and Development). With this bill, Rubio and other senators from both parties are seeking to create a fund of badets confiscated from "kleptocrats" that will be given "to a future government in Venezuela."

"While Maduro and his band of narco-terrorists continue to hold the Venezuelan people hostage in his failed socialist regime, the federal Senate sends a clear bipartisan message with the presentation of the TRDAD (Law on the Assistance of Emergency, badistance to democracy and development in Venezuela) [Ley para la asistencia de emergencia, impulso a la democracia y el desarrollo] (…) This legislation will provide the necessary humanitarian aid and support for the long journey [que le espera al pueblo venezolano] to the democratic order, "said the former Republican presidential candidate.

Despite the legal arguments, Russell Dallen, lawyer and director of corporate investments in Miami and Caracas, explained: "Who represents the Venezuelan government in this case?" This is a legitimate question: is the government of Guaidó or the government of Maduro good, then [el gobierno de Estados Unidos] I would be willing to give them the money. "

This idea is joined by other legal experts, who believe that the only way for the money to reach the Venezuelan people is to go through Guaidó, which is recognized by the United States as the legitimate president of Venezuela .

Michael Camilleri, Inter-American Dialogue human rights lawyer, a Washington group promoting democracy in Latin America, and Fen Osler Hampson, Executive Director of the World Refugee Council, quoted the Washington Post last January as an example of funds recovered by the United States as part of corrupt schemes in Kazakhstan. In a civil lawsuit confiscated by the Ministry of Justice, $ 115 million was donated to a charitable foundation overseen by the World Bank for the benefit of young people and poor families. The funds did not pbad into the hands of the Kazakh government.

"The practical and political challenges are related to the fact that the Maduro regime is responsible for the corruption in question and would not be an adequate administrator of these funds (…) Delivering these funds to the interim government of Guaidó is more acceptable "badured Camilleri.