A former Pdvsa official pleads guilty in the United States for negotiating bribes

Venezuela-American Luis Carlos de León, a former PDVSA energy company, pleaded guilty to receiving and negotiating bribes from American businessmen, reported the Ministry of Justice

de León, 42 years old, he had been arrested in Spain in 2017 and quickly extradited to the United States, where he finally signed his confession of guilt in a court of law. State of Texas (south).

According to his confession, De León used his influence to handle bribes between 2011 and 2013, and participated in attempts to conceal funds obtained through money-laundering mechanisms.

Other senior Venezuelan officials participated in this plot, such as Nervis Gerardo Villalobos and César Rincón, then director of a subsidiary of the national oil company, according to US justice.

El Departament o de Justicia reported that this process is part of a broader investigation that is investigating whether American companies paid bribes to Venezuelan officials to obtain profitable contracts.

De Leon admitted to having demanded bribes. Roberto Rincón and Abraham Shiera Bastidas, with whom he conspired to hide these transactions by financial transactions on Swiss bank accounts.

In his confession, De León said that he was seeking bribes from other energy contractors based in the United States. this portion of these funds has been distributed to the managers of PDVSA and its subsidiaries, in particular to accelerate the payments due by the oil company.

Roberto Rincón and Shiera had already acknowledged their responsibility to the same Texas court.

César Rincón, who admitted to conspiring to launder money and now hopes to dictate your sentence. Villalobos is held in Spain and is the subject of an extradition request from the United States.

The hearing to hear the conviction of De León was scheduled for September 24th.