Six American businessmen have been convicted …

Six American businessmen sentenced in Venezuela to terms ranging from eight to 13 years in prison. Everybody were managers of a subsidiary of the state-owned oil company PDVSA based in the United States. Entrepreneurs were found guilty of corruption as reported by the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela (TSJ). Attorney General Tarek Saab accused the administrators of having signed contracts compromising the national heritage. Washington had repeatedly called on Venezuela to release the former leaders, detained in November 2017.

“Association to commit a crime”

The six U.S. citizens were part of a branch of Citgo, a Venezuelan company based in the United States, which in turn depends on PDVSA. Citgo performs petroleum refining tasks and markets naphtha, lubricants and petrochemicals. The former president of this company José Pereira Ruimwyk was sentenced to 13 years and 7 months in prison. A Caracas court found him guilty of the crimes of “intentional embezzlement”, “official’s agreement with the contractor” and “criminal association”. Furthermore $ 2 million fine, 40 percent of the value of the crime property, reported the TSJ.

For their part, former directors Tomeu Vadell, Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cárdenas, José Luis Zambrano and Alirio Zambrano must comply sentence of 8 years and 10 months for “civil servant agreement with contractor” and “criminal association”. The decision also disqualified former executives from holding any public office in the future. Pereira Ruimwyk is a Venezuelan living in the United States. The other convicts have dual Venezuelan-American nationality.

The Venezuelan Attorney General had requested the arrest of the former directors on November 21, 2017. At that time, he was explaining the fraudulent operations they had carried out in the Venezuelan company. “The general management of Citgo, on July 15, 2017, signed an international agreement with the companies Frontier Group Management and Apolo Global Management, based on a deemed refinancing of 2014 and 2015 debt programsSaab had explained. The prosecutor maintained that the agreement with these companies was intended to apply for loans. However, these had leonine and unfavorable conditions for the statesaid the official. He also reported that they had offered as collateral to the branch itself.

Lawyer Jesús Loreto, defender of Vadell, said he would appeal the judicial resolution while respecting his client’s rights. “The decision has no practical or legal basis“The lawyer said. However, he expressed his distrust of the Venezuelan legal system, which he considers politicized. For their part, the family of the former executive has denied the charges.”We continue to deny the charges. We are sad and disappointed because justice was not served today“, Verónica Vadell commented to the agency AFP.

The American lobby

Amid constant calls from the United States to free these businessmen, the former Democratic diplomat Bill richardson He went to the Caribbean country to intercede for them. He succeeded in having Cárdenas and Toledo under house arrest at the end of last July, but the other expetroleros are still being held at El Helicoide, the main headquarters of the intelligence service (SEBIN) in Caracas. At the time, Donald Trump’s chief diplomat, Mike Pompeo, had mentioned the situation of the other four. With reference to his stay at El Helicoide, he said that thThey were in danger due to the coronavirus pandemic. The situation, the State Department said, threatens their lives.

Richardson met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that the White House does not know because it supports the self-proclamation Juan Guaidó. The US government gave him control of Citgo in 2019, after recognizing him as president. The US Treasury Department has issued protective measures which block any attempt to seize the shares of this PDVSA subsidiary by its creditors. The action was taken after Citgo was on the verge of confiscation following a ruling in favor of Canadian company Crystallex. This company obtained this judgment and one of the mines operated in Venezuela was nationalized in 2011.