Dismissal of Atlantic case. Photo: Cuentas Claras Digital
Following the absurd statements by Tareck El Aissami and Tarek William Saab last August, alleging a “mega fraud” perpetrated against Pdvsa by Rafael Ramírez and his accomplices concerning the contract with the Administradora Atlantic 17107 CA, whose president is Juan A. Wallis Brandt, a line of credit in bolívares that ended up being paid in dollars to foreign companies Violet Advisors SA and Welca Holdings Limited, owned by brothers Luis and Ignacio Oberto, three months later, the same Public Ministry that filed charges and detained Víctor Aular, conducted raids, seized properties, and issued arrest and extradition orders, now, in a surprising turn, requested and obtained the dismissal in favor of Víctor Aular in record time.
On November 29, 2022, the Fourth Special Court of First Instance with Control Functions presided over by Judge José M. Márquez García dismissed the case against Víctor Aular Blanco, the former Vice President of Finance at Pdvsa, who was freed after being accused of fraudulent utilization of public funds, simple embezzlement, money laundering, and conspiracy. In the ruling, the MP and the Court consider that after analyzing the results of an investigation conducted, notably in suspiciously short time, there is no crime that can be charged in this case, according to Venezuelan laws and the Penal Code.
Complete document of the dismissal for Víctor Aular in the Pdvsa-Atlantic case. Exclusive CCD.
The story repeats
This is not the first time something similar has happened. A precedent occurred in 2020 when Raúl Gorrín, Gustavo Perdomo, Carmelo Urdaneta, and Víctor Aular were dismissed in a similar case concerning the loan agreement between Pdvsa and Rantor Capital CA/Eaton Global Services owned by Raúl Gorrín.
In both cases, the prosecutor in charge of the accusation and subsequent dismissal has been Farik K. Mora Salcedo.
The text of the dismissal in the Atlantic case—full of contradictions—accessed by Cuentas Claras Digital, evidences the clumsiness and incapacity of Nicolás Maduro’s kleptocratic regime which, in attempting to settle scores with Rafael Ramírez over internal disputes, did not measure the consequences for its own interests of exposing a Pandora’s box like the corruption scheme in Pdvsa, related to illicit business concerning the exchange rate differential, which even implicates his stepchildren, connected with Alejandro Betancourt, Francisco Convit Guruceaga, and Raúl Gorrín, as demonstrated by US authorities in the Money Flight case following the accusation made by lawyer Pedro Binaggia.
The Looting of PDVSA: THE TESTIMONY OF THE KEY WITNESS
A self-inflicted wound
The Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami denounces the Atlantic case as one of the most severe corruption schemes that Pdvsa has suffered. Photo: YouTube.
On August 30, 2022, Tareck El Aissami denounced a “mega fraud” orchestrated by “the mafia of Rafael Ramírez that would result in significant harm to public assets estimated at nearly 5 billion dollars.” According to the official, Pdvsa did not receive the more than 17 trillion bolívares designated as a loan in the contract with Administradora Atlantic, which was later expanded with companies Violet and Welca to over 35 trillion bolívares, and that were completely paid in dollars to these companies by the oil company.
With unprecedented swiftness, the day after El Aissami’s denunciation, Tarek William Saab held a press conference where he elaborated on the accusations and presented the video testimony of Víctor Aular, emphasizing the culpability of Rafael Ramírez.
Víctor Aular, presented as both an accused and a key informant in the case, stated he had alerted Rafael Ramírez about the illegality of the contract signed with Atlantic, which violated the Foreign Exchange Law and the BCV Law and, by pleading guilty, acknowledged that there was a “pre-agreement” between Ramírez and the beneficiaries of the contract for the loan in bolívares to ultimately be paid in dollars to obtain enormous profits from the exchange rate differential.
William Tarek Saab announces actions against implicated individuals in the Administradora Atlantic 17107 CA case and presents the “testimony” of Víctor Aular. Image: YouTube
As we have stated numerous times, the businesses conducted regarding the exchange rate differential at both Pdvsa and the National Treasury Office were executed with absolute opacity involving non-financial companies lacking experience in the sector that made obscene profits at the expense of public assets, handpicked by high officials through millionaire bribes, as proven in the cases of former treasurers Alejandro Andrade, Claudia Díaz, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, as well as Víctor Aular and Rafael Ramírez. Precisely for this reason, Malpica Flores—currently a key figure in Miraflores—was directly involved in closing the Atlantic case with this dismissal, as Cuentas Claras Digital has learned. Cilia Flores’ nephew replaced Aular as Vice President of Finance and continued with the same modus operandi, as demonstrated in the Rantor/Eaton case involving Raúl Gorrín.
Víctor Aular confessed that there was a pre-agreement between Rafael Ramírez and Administradora Atlantic to pay the loan in bolívares in dollars, thus obtaining profits from the exchange rate differential. Source: YouTube
The contradictions
In 2020, the Public Ministry requested a dismissal of the case against Víctor Aular and his protection concerning the contract signed between Pdvsa and Raúl Gorrín via Rantor and Eaton companies. Subsequently, the same Public Ministry accused and detained Aular, who appeared as the representative of Pdvsa in that contract.
After William Tarek Saab disqualified the consulting firm KPMG at the time of Aular’s arrest, now the same report from the international consulting firm is used to justify a new dismissal in favor of Aular in a similar case.
Despite the existence of an internal report from Pdvsa published on December 12, 2019, on the official website of the Ministry of Communication and Information, recommending the denunciation of the Atlantic contract to the Attorney General’s Office, the MP did not make any decision until August 2022, when opening such an investigation became politically expedient. Now, they retract the contents of the accusation.
Questions that remain unanswered
1.- Why did PDVSA not conduct a public auction given the existence of an integrated financial system in Venezuela at that time comprised of public and private companies?
2.- Where is the statement from the BCV regarding this case, being that it is legally obligated to control foreign currencies, except for the corresponding legal exceptions?
3.- If both the contract between Pdvsa and Atlantic and Rantor are legal, as the Public Ministry now asserts, why did they resort to bribing officials, some of whom have already pleaded guilty and are being processed in other jurisdictions, such as Carmelo Urdaneta, former legal consultant at the Ministry of Oil?
The management of the assets seized from those involved in crimes related to Víctor Aular remains pending, as does the relationship of the regime’s business with the exchange rate differential that may have been used to finance political activities of Chavismo, such as the 2012 presidential campaign of Hugo Chávez.
As we have stated, the Venezuelan judiciary controlled by the autocrat only acts when it suits Nicolás Maduro’s political interests. In this instance, following the self-inflicted wound caused by the denunciation of the Atlantic case, the members of the Chavista-Madurista kleptocracy have had no option but to take a step back to avoid being implicated in the investigation they themselves announced in 2022.
It is worth remembering that this case has been known since 2013 when it was denounced in the book Estado Delincuente (Tablante and Tarre) and later confirmed in El Gran Saqueo (Tablante, 2015).