The agricultural and agro-industrial sector in Venezuela has been impacted by a corruption scheme involving Alessandro Bazzoni, Erik Roveta, José Antonio Pérez Suárez, and Wilmar Castro Soteldo, who defrauded entrepreneurs by offering payments from the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), in exchange for food products. This scam, which took place between 2021 and 2022, led to the bankruptcy of numerous companies and a severe food shortage that affected all Venezuelans, 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 the oil delivered in these partnerships and share it among themselves.
The creation of United Petroleo Corp, a Panamanian company registered by Alessandro Bazzoni, was part of the strategy to deceive entrepreneurs, making them believe they were being compensated with oil from the genuine United Petroleum & Chemicals Co. LTD, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned Sinopec Corp. This Panamanian entity run by Bazzoni accrued 400 million dollars in unpaid bills to PDVSA.
The case also involves the Greek shipowner George Moundreas, a partner of Bazzoni in several oil transport vessels. One of the ships, the MT Nikel, simply set sail without permission, leaving the full invoice for the oil on board unpaid. Another vessel, the MT Gent, owned by the Italian, is waiting to be unloaded due to a lack of payment.
The coordination of cash management was handled by José Youssef Boutros, a local currency trader in Venezuela, under the supervision of Chávez Calva from Dubai. They used fictitious financial structures to access top-tier banking platforms, such as MBaer Merchant Bank, where Evjemo-Nysveen held a director 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), while Álvaro Pulido, another participant in the case, was charged in the Southern District of Florida. Washington is offering a reward of up to 10 million dollars for the capture of Pulido.
In 2020, Evjemo Nysveem was appointed to the board of MBaer Merchant Bank, shortly after she and her husband Alessandro Bazzoni moved to Mexico to spend the COVID-19 pandemic, where their friend Joaquín Leal Jimenez was hosting. This connection raises concerns about the possible involvement of the Swiss bank in the fraudulent activities conducted by the criminal network.
Alessandro Bazzoni and Siri Evjemo-Nysveen, money launderers of 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 used firms such as 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 participation in these illegal activities has led the Venezuelan prosecutor’s office to issue an arrest warrant against him for trafficking and the illicit 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 fraud with PDVSA, Bazzoni was also involved in illicit dealings with the Nicolás Maduro regime. He is accused of assuming the role of Alex Saab, Maduro’s frontman, in coordinating the sale of Venezuelan crude oil after Saab’s arrest in June 2020 in Cape Verde.
The criminal network led by Bazzoni and his associates not only caused an estimated financial loss of around $800 million to PDVSA but also 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 affected the entire Venezuelan population.
The ongoing investigation reveals that this criminal network operated in collaboration with other networks both inside and outside Venezuela, suggesting that the corruption cases within PDVSA could be just the tip of the iceberg. The Venezuelan prosecutor’s office continues to gather information about the activities of Bazzoni and his associates across different continents, aiming to completely dismantle this criminal network and bring all those responsible to justice.