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Former Venezuelan officials, as well as businessmen of other nationalities, were accused of laundering $ 1.2 billion worth of PDVSA in Florida, said Wednesday the prosecutor's office American, who described the "Venezuelan elite" as "boliburgus".
"The alleged conspirators are former PDVSA officials, professional money launderers and members of the Venezuelan elite, sometimes called Boliburgueses," the prosecution said in a statement. release, using the term Venezuelan corrupt officials, joining the words "bolivarian" – affiliated with the government – and "bourgeois".
The Venezuelan defendants are Francisco Convit, a shareholder of Derwick Associates; Carmelo Urdaneta, former legal adviser to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining; Abraham Ortega, former leader of the state oil company PDVSA and José Vicente "Chente" Amparan, a skilled contractor of "professional money launderer" with links to Spain and Malta.
These four Venezuelans have not been arrested, as well as Portuguese Hugo Ramalho and Uruguayan Marcelo Gutiérrez Acosta and Lara, who also remain fugitives after being indicted by the federal prosecutor's office in the district. South Florida
Meanwhile, Matthias Krull (German) and Gustavo Hernández Frieri (Colombian) Tuesday and Wednesday in Miami, Florida, and Sicily, Italy, respectively. The latter will be extradited to the United States to be prosecuted
According to the criminal complaint, "the plot in this case would have started in December 2014 with a foreign exchange program intended to divert nearly 600 million dollars." In May 2015, the plot would have doubled to $ 1.2 billion diverted from PDVSA, "he added.
In 2016, a person who had participated in the conspiracy the money laundering was handed over to justice American who decided to cooperate, after receiving 78 million euros from a contract with PDVSA.
Thanks to this informant, Operation Huida de Dinero has studied hundreds of thousands of dollars. records taken over two years and found that the oil company's money, which contributes 96% of Venezuela's revenue, was laundered by the purchase of real estate in Miami and "sophisticated" bone plans to fake investments. "
rivers of pr Criminal Offenses
The Homeland Security Department officer who investigated, George Fernandez, stated in his affidavit that the conspirators through PDVSA-bought dollars at a rate of official exchange, which in Venezuela is much lower than the value of the dollar on the black market.
"In the Venezuelan government-controlled monetary system, fraud and mbadive corruption are rife, fraud is estimated to reach $ 20,000 million a year and reports indicate corrupt officials accept bribes to authorize exchanges at the official rate, "said Agent Fernandez
. It can turn tens of millions of dollars into hundreds of millions of dollars, as the country is drowning in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, also creating a regional problem with thousands of refugees on the borders of Brazil and Colombia.
The International Monetary Fund projected an annual inflation rate of up to 1,000,000 percent in Venezuela, where the minimum wage – $ 1.5 at the black market rate – was barely enough to buy a kilo of chicken.
The culture of corruption that exists In Venezuela, added agent Fernandez, "brings floods of criminal profits to South Florida, which has become a money laundering center and a destination for criminals "
The figures of the badociation of realtors show, for example, that in 2015, Venezuelans were foreigners who had bought more homes in South Florida. [19659002ThatyearVenezuelansplayedaleadingroleaccountingfor184%ofrealestatetransactionsbyforeignersfollowedbyCanadians(111%)whoaregenerallythemostnumerousandBrazilians(94%)
But the previous year, in 2014, the figures were remarkably different: among foreigners who bought homes in Florida, only 3.4% were Venezuelans, and then in 2016 , Venezuela came back to third place with 7.8%. [1 9659002]
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