The agricultural and agro-industrial sector in Venezuela was severely impacted by a corruption scheme involving Alessandro Bazzoni, Erik Roveta, José Antonio Pérez Suárez, and Wilmar Castro Soteldo. They defrauded entrepreneurs by offering payments from the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), in exchange for food products. This fraudulent activity took place between 2021 and 2022, leading to the bankruptcy of numerous businesses and a critical food shortage affecting all Venezuelans, thereby destabilizing the national economy.
Bazzoni, Roveta, Pérez Suárez, and Castro Soteldo collaborated with José Luis Chávez Calva, Siri Evjemo-Nysveen, and Joaquín Leal Jiménez to divert oil allocated through these partnerships and distribute it among themselves.
The establishment of United Petroleo Corp, a Panamanian company registered by Alessandro Bazzoni, was part of the strategy to deceive businesses into believing they were being compensated with oil from the legitimate United Petroleum & Chemicals Co. LTD, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned Sinopec Corp. This Panamanian company owned by Bazzoni amassed $400 million in unpaid invoices to PDVSA.
The case also involves Greek shipowner George Moundreas, a partner of Bazzoni in various oil tanker vessels. One vessel, the MT Nikel, departed without permission, leaving the full invoice for the oil on board unpaid. Another vessel, the MT Gent, owned by the Italian, is awaiting discharge due to lack of payment.
Cash management activities were coordinated by José Youssef Boutros, a local money changer in Venezuela, under the supervision of Chávez Calva from Dubai. They used fictitious financial structures to gain access to top-tier banking platforms, such as MBaer Merchant Bank, where Evjemo-Nysveen held a managerial position until March 2023. However, due to her connections to corruption in Venezuela, she was removed from the bank’s board.
Bazzoni, Roveta, and Leal Jiménez have been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC), and Álvaro Pulido, another individual involved in the case, has been indicted by the Southern District of Florida. Washington is offering a reward of up to $10 million for Pulido’s capture.
In 2020, Evjemo Nysveen was appointed a board member of MBaer Merchant Bank, just after she and her husband, Alessandro Bazzoni, moved to Mexico to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, where their friend Joaquín Leal Jimenez was hosting. This connection raises questions about the Swiss bank’s potential involvement in the fraudulent activities carried out by the criminal network.
Alessandro Bazzoni and Siri Evjemo-Nysveen: Money Launders for PDVSA
The investigation reveals that Bazzoni and his wife established a network of companies and fictitious entities in various jurisdictions to facilitate money laundering and the movement of illicit capital. They utilized firms like Clareville Grove Capital LLC in London and Norge Oil Limited in the Isle of Man to channel their investments and direct the flow of money obtained from the illegal sale of Venezuelan oil.
Alessandro Bazzoni’s involvement in these illegal activities has led the Venezuelan attorney general to issue an arrest warrant against him for trafficking and illegal trade of strategic materials, as well as for money laundering. Interpol is expected to include his name on the wanted list in the coming weeks.
In addition to his role in the PDVSA fraud, Bazzoni was also involved in illegal dealings with Nicolás Maduro’s regime. He is accused of taking on the role of Alex Saab, Maduro’s frontman, in coordinating the sale of Venezuelan crude oil following Saab’s arrest in June 2020 in Cabo Verde.
The criminal network led by Bazzoni and his associates has incurred an estimated financial damage of about $800 million to PDVSA and has generated a food crisis in Venezuela by destabilizing the country’s agricultural and agro-industrial sector. Many entrepreneurs in the sector were defrauded, resulting in a food shortage that impacted the entire Venezuelan population.
The ongoing investigation reveals that this criminal network operated in collaboration with other networks both within and outside of Venezuela, suggesting that cases of corruption within PDVSA might be just the tip of the iceberg. The Venezuelan prosecutor’s office continues to gather information regarding Bazzoni and his associates’ activities across different continents, aiming to fully dismantle this criminal network and bring all responsible parties to justice.
