Fernando José Bermúdez Ramos: The Venezuelan Fugitive Behind the Pdvsa-Crypto Scheme
In 2023, Fernando José Bermúdez Ramos made headlines in Venezuela due to his alleged involvement in the Pdvsa-Crypto corruption scheme, which led to numerous arrests linked to the case. However, in March 2023, the Venezuelan Public Ministry clarified that Bermúdez Ramos had not been apprehended but had fled the country, seeking refuge in Spain, a country familiar to him from previous vacation trips and Real Madrid football matches.
The Business Career of Fernando Bermúdez Ramos
For over a decade, Fernando José Bermúdez Ramos has been connected to various companies established in Venezuela, Panama, and the United States. The companies associated with Bermúdez Ramos in the United States were relatively unknown until now. His management experience with betting halls in Barquisimeto, Lara state, including one located in the Río Lama Shopping Center during the early 2000s, eventually led him to pursue other business ventures.
Passion for Professional Poker
His passion for professional poker and participation in international tournaments, some held in the United States, may have stemmed from his earlier ownership of betting halls. The Pdvsa-Crypto scheme and his purported involvement in it have made Bermúdez Ramos a target of investigation and pursuit by Venezuelan and U.S. authorities.
Keywords: Fernando José Bermúdez Ramos, Pdvsa-Crypto, corruption, Venezuela, Spain, United States, Panama, money laundering, corruption scheme, Venezuelan businessman, fugitive, professional poker.
Fernando Bermúdez Ramos: Venezuelan Businessman with Interests in Venezuela, Panama, and the United States
In 2012, Fernando Bermúdez Ramos established several companies in Miranda state, Venezuela, including the FBR Construction Corporation, C.A. and the FBR Electronics Corporation, C.A. His partner in these companies was his brother-in-law, Roberto Anderson Cardoso Gouveia, a citizen of Portuguese origin.
The FBR Food Corporation, C.A. and the Cooperative Association El Platinum R.L.
In 2012, Bermúdez Ramos also founded the FBR Food Corporation, C.A., dedicated to livestock, agricultural, and fishing activities in Miranda state. Additionally, in Venezuela, in Portuguesa state, he managed the Cooperative Association El Platinum R.L. through his current wife, Mónica Andreína Esser.
Investments in Panama
In Panama, Bermúdez Ramos has been the director of the company Inversiones Iberica 2009, S.A. since 2009, and currently oversees the Panamanian corporation Corporacion Fbr26, S.A. alongside his sister María Fernanda.
Global Foods Trading, S.A. and Its Connections
One of the most controversial Panamanian companies in which Bermúdez Ramos participated was Global Foods Trading, S.A., founded in 2014. Bermúdez Ramos was a director of this company along with lawyer Amir Nassar Tayupe and Panamanian José Javier Saldaña García.
Connections with Germán Rubio Salas (Álvaro Pulido Vargas)
José Javier Saldaña García was also a director of Global Structure, S.A. and Comec Industry, S.A., two Panamanian companies overseen by Emmanuel Enrique Rubio González, son of Germán Rubio Salas (more commonly known as Álvaro Pulido Vargas), a Colombian businessman accused in the U.S. of money laundering stemming from corrupt activities in Venezuela.
The Panamanian Global Foods Trading, the company of Fernando Bermúdez Ramos, was a contractor for the state-owned Venezuelan Corporation of Foreign Trade (Corpovex) for supplying 90,000 tons of yellow corn, allegedly sold at inflated prices. Global Foods Trading secured at least three other contracts with Nicolás Maduro’s administration for the sale of wheat, crude soybean oil, and paddy rice. The company signed the contract with Corpovex for the 90,000 tons of yellow corn only 18 days after Emmanuel Rubio (son of Germán Rubio) submitted the bid.
According to sources close to the case, Nassar and Bermúdez are compadres. Lawyer Amir Nassar is the godfather of one of Fernando Bermúdez Ramos’s daughters. Both forged a relationship with Colombian businessman Álvaro Pulido Vargas—previously known as Germán Rubio Salas—during their time at the Los Cortijos Country Club in Caracas, the same club whose directors were sued years ago by Bermúdez Ramos’s father, citing “discrimination” when he was denied access for being, according to his father’s argument, a “Chavista businessman.” Pulido Vargas was another individual accused in 2023 in the context of the Pdvsa-Crypto corruption scheme. However, unlike Bermúdez, Pulido was indeed detained in Caracas. Nassar and Bermúdez also cultivated a good relationship at the club with José Enrique Cachutt D’Sola, president of the Panamanian firm Fb Foods Llc, S.A., established in 2017, whose initials (FB) seem to reference Fernando Bermúdez. José Javier Saldaña even appeared as a subscriber of Fb Foods Llc, S.A.
Cachutt D’Sola also operated a branch in the United Kingdom: Fb Foods Llc C.A. Ltd., between 2018 and 2019. In June 2018, another was registered, this time FB Foods LLC CA Limited, in Hong Kong.
At the local 5, Ground Floor of the Europe Tower, Chacao Municipality, Miranda State, Fernando Bermúdez Ramos and José Enrique Cachutt ran the company F B Foods Llc C.A., with Bermúdez Ramos being the majority shareholder. This company received payments for supplying food packages for the state-run Local Committees for Supply and Production (CLAP). An invoice for freight provided by a transport company, issued on June 16, 2019, demonstrates how FB Foods LLC CA had to pay for the transport of CLAP boxes between Cumaná and Ciudad Bolívar. However, in the past, when pressed by the press, Bermúdez has denied participating in the CLAP business.
In 2008, Fernando Bermúdez Ramos seemed to lead a happy life with Elsy Gabriela Armas Colmenares, whom he met in Barquisimeto and with whom he had two children. However, by 2012, Bermúdez Ramos was involved with another younger woman: Mónica Andreína Coromoto Esser Carames, originally from Acarigua, Portuguesa state. Hence, Acarigua is also the headquarters of the Cooperative Association El Platinum R.L., directed by Esser and Bermúdez.
If a niece of Bermúdez Ramos, who accompanied Mónica Esser to the Mynt Lounge nightclub in Miami in January 2012, had not lifted her glass for a toast, as shown in a photograph where Esser appears, perhaps Fernando Bermúdez would also be visible alongside his now-wife. In the photo, only an arm and the shirt of a man embracing Esser can be seen.
Perhaps Fernando Bermúdez Ramos is repeating his father’s story, the automotive dealer Fernando Bermúdez Herrera, who left Milagro, the mother of Bermúdez Ramos, to start a romance and marry Helga Von Crazut, an attractive professional in administration and law, 33 years his junior. From this second marriage of the family patriarch, the youngest of the Bermúdez brothers would be born. However, Bermúdez Herrera’s relationship with his second wife would later end in legal disputes.
Bermúdez Ramos’s Parents
Fernando Bermúdez’s father and lawyer Helga Von Crazut, his former second wife.
Returning to the current wife of Fernando Bermúdez Ramos, it has been precisely through Mónica Andreína Esser Carames that Bermúdez Ramos has managed, in part, to maintain a low profile in the United States, Panama, and even in Venezuela, jurisdictions where Mónica Esser, or “Andreína,” as those close to her know her, is or has been listed as a director of various companies.
Fernando Bermúdez and his wife Mónica Esser (second and third from left), with designer Hugo Espina (first on the right)
In December 2016, Venezuelan designer Hugo Espina, one of Miss Venezuela’s favorites, showcased his creation on social media referring to the dress worn by Mónica Esser at her wedding to Fernando Bermúdez Ramos, held in Venezuela at the Ikin Margarita Hotel & Spa, on Margarita Island. Espina himself attended as a guest to handle the dress details and assist the bride. The lavish celebration extended over a weekend, with guests enjoying a “post-party” by the hotel pool—all during a time when Venezuela was already facing a severe economic crisis.
That same year, 2016, the Mosa Corporation, S.A. was established in Panama, presided over by Venezuelan Sandra Elizabet Ariza Acosta, with Mónica Esser and her sister Oriana listed as directors. The goal of Mosa Corporation, S.A. is or was the “wholesale purchase and sale of personal care products such as fragrances, gels, body creams, shampoos, conditioners, soaps with natural fragrances, and similar items.”
Mónica Esser has also served as director of Lou Lou Ccs Inc., a company registered in Miami in August 2022 and currently inactive, as well as president of Lou Lou Paris Inc., where her sister-in-law, María De Los Angeles Bermúdez, Fernando Bermúdez Ramos’s older sister, is listed as a director.
Following the arrest warrant issued against him in Venezuela, Fernando Bermúdez Ramos has remained in Madrid, Spain, with his wife and four minor children. There, the family leads an opulent lifestyle.
For “the ex” as well
Bermúdez Ramos’s generosity has not been limited to his new wife but has also benefited his ex-partner. Both women have interacted with other members of the parents and student representatives’ community at the exclusive and expensive Jefferson School in Caracas.
After the separation, and following her stay in Barquisimeto, Elsy Armas, Bermúdez’s ex, continued living in Caracas, where she has engaged in several entrepreneurial ventures related to her passion for crafts and jewelry making for online sale. One of her most notable businesses was creating eye-catching decorations for children’s parties through a company known commercially as “Sweet Paper Party” and formally as Inversiones Sweet Paper Hands, S.A.
Elsy Armas and one of her decorations for children’s parties
While doubts may exist regarding Bermúdez Ramos’s connection to his ex’s ventures, it is noteworthy that the address of Inversiones Sweet Paper Hands, S.A. listed in Venezuelan official records was a local in the Ground Floor of the Europe Tower in Chacao municipality, Miranda state. It is worth recalling that FB Foods LLC CA, one of Bermúdez’s food companies, also operated on the ground floor of the same building.
Since March 2023, Elsy Armas has continued to focus on creating gift cards and creative stationery, as well as offering workshops on this subject, from a location in Prados del Este, Caracas, through a sort of academy called “Sweet Paper Club.”
Perhaps the relationship between Mónica Andreína Esser and her husband’s ex is so cordial that Esser attended the celebration of their oldest daughter’s 15th birthday with his ex in October 2022. The elegant party, held in Caracas, featured performances by various artists, including Puerto Rican rapper Mora, who was in the Venezuelan capital as part of his “Summer Tour” 2022. This suggests that the Pdvsa-Crypto scheme had room for everything.
An “Hidden” Apartment in Miami Under IRS and Treasury Scrutiny
Mint is a 56-story condominium building located on the southern edge of downtown Miami, near Brickell. It sits on the Miami River and offers stunning views of the river, the city, and the bay. Completed in 2010, Mint Brickell was developed by Key International and designed by the renowned architectural firm Revuelta Vega Leon Architects. In that building, located at 92 SW 3 ST, Fernando Bermúdez Ramos purchased an apartment in December 2013 for $600,000. Later, in December 2014, Bermúdez transferred the property’s ownership to Mint Brickell 504 LLC, a firm that had been established in Delaware four months earlier, in August of that same year.
The quitclaim deed includes a note clarifying that Fernando Bermúdez is the owner of Mint Brickell 504 LLC and that, therefore, there was no actual change in the beneficiary of the property. Proof of this is that after the quitclaim, Bermúdez’s current wife continued using the same address for business purposes.
Questions arise: Why and for what purpose did Bermúdez transfer the property to a firm he created in Delaware, a recognized U.S. tax haven? Was he seeking to reduce his tax burden on the property or attempting to conceal it in some manner? Was this a legitimate transfer or a discrepancy detrimental to the U.S. treasury? Did Bermúdez’s former wife have rights to the property? In any case, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) might be tasked with investigating and clarifying the matter, as it is curious that the name of the Delaware firm closely relates to the apartment’s location, suggesting it may have been created solely for this transfer, raising red flags from a fiscal perspective in the U.S.
Given the accusations against Bermúdez Ramos, linking him to corruption schemes in state-run businesses in Venezuela, his apartment in Miami may be at risk of seizure by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Curious Coincidence
FBR Food Corporation, C.A., one of the Venezuelan companies presided over by Fernando Bermúdez Ramos since 2012, appears in official records with an address in the JWM Tower (JW Marriot), in El Rosal Urbanization, Chacao, Miranda state. The same records show the phone number 0212-9531219 as the company’s contact number. This same phone number was previously used by Landscape Vision Corporation S.A. (Lanvicorp), a controversial Panamanian company with a subsidiary in Venezuela. The Caracas subsidiary was created in July 2013, and in less than a month, it signed its first agreement with the Venezuelan government. In March 2014, it was awarded the construction of the Caracas Monumental Stadium Simón Bolívar, also known as the La Rinconada Baseball Stadium, a project that experienced multiple delays and was reportedly subject to cost overruns. Other projects it worked on included vertical gyms in 15 locations across Venezuela and the renovations of the Caribe Hotel (formerly Meliá) in Caraballeda, Vargas state, and the Guaicamacuto Hotel (formerly Macuto Sheraton) in the same town. All these were state-contracted works. Lanvicorp is presided over in Panama by Ramón Rodrigo Alvarado Garzón, while Ramón Carretero Napolitano serves as the company’s legal representative.
Whether coincidence or not that FBR Food Corporation, C.A. and Landscape Vision Corporation S.A. (Lanvicorp) once used the same phone number, it is striking that both companies are linked to controversial contracts with the Venezuelan state.
In upcoming posts, we will reveal more details about Fernando Bermúdez Ramos and other controversies surrounding the Bermúdez family.
