Document confirms Maduro regime paid in gold to Italian company for which Maradona acted as “lobbyist”

The regime of Nicolas maduro used gold bars to buy thousands of tons of agricultural produce from the Italian company Casillo, which had hired an international luxury lobbyist: Diego Armando Maradona. The data, mentioned by lawyer Matías Morla in two audios revealed yesterday by Infobae, appear in a financial report published by this firm in the middle of last year. According to this document, In 2019, Casillo sold some of the gold bars the Venezuelan government gave him.

Faced with the freezing of their bank accounts, the Maduro regime has used this method of payment in recent years to purchase food and other basic supplies. Only with certain companies. Casillo was one of them. In the “Integrated Annual Report” for 2019, a sort of summary of the financial and economic situation of this company, specific mention is made of gold bars.

On page 130 of this document, published in English and Italian on the company’s website, this paragraph appears: “Other financial income in the amount of 468 thousand euros consists of 144 thousand euros of ” accrued interest on bank accounts 306 thousand euros of the capital gain realized by the sale of gold bars acquired during the year in payment of receivables of a commercial nature from the Venezuelan client “Corporación Venezolana de Comercio” to Esposito Preziosi Srl“.

The Venezuelan Foreign Trade Corporation (CORPOVEX) was the body that signed the contracts with Casillo for the sale of cereals. At least since 2013, Maduro’s regime has received dozens of ships filled with corn, rice, wheat, and soy flour, among other commodities.. All operations were carried out via Puerto Cabello, in the state of Carabobo.

Esposito is an Italian company specializing in the buying and selling of gold. “The service is available to investors who wish to sell their precious metal products for investment purposes. The Esposito Group spa, thanks to its very modern analysis laboratory, carries out checks on each incoming product, in order to verify its regularity in terms of purity and weight ”, specifies the company page.

Casillo’s FY2019 report, approved in the middle of last year, is the only record for gold bars used by Venezuela. It is also surprising that such a low amount appears: only 306 thousand euros.

“This is what they sold, most bullion must have continued to speculate on the priceSaid a source who follows the intrigue of this millionaire business.

In Casillo’s reports for 2018 and 2017, the Caribbean country is not even mentioned. On the other hand, in the 2016 report, Venezuela is highlighted as one of the main markets of the Italian firm with Tunisia, Cuba, Algeria, Turkey and Libya. However, that year sales to the Maduro diet fell sharply: 20% for wheat and 9.7% for corn.

In 2015, the situation was similar: sales of the Casillo Group in Venezuela fell by 11.4% (corn) and 7.1% (wheat). “Venezuela is in economic recession and is characterized by strong inflationary pressures, ”underlines this year’s report.

Despite the crisis in the Venezuelan economy, sales have increased. The 2019 report provides data on the scale of the company in which Maradona had been involved by your representative. In that year alone, the companies of the Casillo group achieved a turnover of 1,493 million euros and employed 371 people, 8% more than the previous year.

The relationship between Casillo Commodities Italia Spa and Venezuela dates back to 2013. From that point on, several contracts were signed. As published by Venezuelan journalist Roberto Deniz on the Armando Info website, it was only between 2015 and 2018 that sales reached $ 1.5 billion.

Of this total, Maradona charged a percentage for his efforts. Its function was “to open new markets” or to conduct negotiations in Latin America, in particular in three countries: Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The contract signed in 2015 provided for a commission of $ 3 per metric ton sold by Casillo in Venezuela and Nicaragua. In the case of Cuba, the commission has been reduced to $ 1.8 per tonne. “After the increase in the commission, Diego came to charge almost $ 5 a tonne,” said a source close to the negotiation.

For each sale they also received a commission Matías Morla and the company Diez FZE. The representative at the time charged 30 cents on the dollar for every tonne sold in Nicaragua and Cuba and 40 cents for every tonne that arrived in Venezuela.

The question of paying in gold was raised yesterday from two audios that Morla sent to Maradona in March 2019 and were exclusively revealed by Infobae.

“There they make payments in gold because they have all the blocked accounts, but hey, God willing, we will solve the contracts to keep everything the same.”Morla says in the first 43-second audio after mentioning the preparations for an alleged trip to Venezuela, which never materialized.

In the second audio, repeat something similar: “The blockade issue is very complicated and they are going to pay with gold, so I will tell you in person how the problem is.

Morla was trying to convince Diego of a whirlwind trip to Venezuela, on a private flight, possibly at the request of Maduro himself: “Whether you go, it goes without saying how important that would be, but hey, it is understood that you also work at your club.” Despite the insistence of his representative, Maradona did not visit Venezuela in 2019 and only met Maduro in January 2020.

Maradona and Morla have made millions of dollars from the grain trade, but there is still a lot of money to be raised. In fact, the Casillo company just intimidated the Venezuelan government into paying $ 73,395,687. The document to which he had access Infobae, is dated February 25, 2021 and was presented in the inheritance file by Morla’s defense.

Close to the former representative, they assure that Maradona “has never cashed in gold”. “Diego had a bad experience when the gold replica of the World Cup was stolen from a bank,” he told the outlet. Mauricio D’Alessandro, lawyer of the former representative of the star.

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