In addition to last week’s news regarding a ruling against PDVSA in the criminal lawsuit filed against Helsinge, Francisco Morillo, and others, sources familiar with the situation in Venezuela have provided further details. A court in Geneva dismissed Helsinge’s arguments questioning the legitimacy of PDVSA as an aggravated part of a conspiracy to defraud the Venezuelan energy giant. Helsinge’s (foolish) argument essentially reiterated its (valid) position in a civil case filed in Florida by PDVSA US Litigation Trust. It seems that no one in Helsinge’s camp noticed the distinction between PDVSA filing a criminal claim directly as an affected party and PDVSA transferring its claim rights to PDVSA US Litigation Trust to act on its behalf in a civil matter. Based on that same reasoning, the judge rejected Helsinge’s objection. This ruling has significant implications for Helsinge’s Swiss co-conspirators, that is, Glencore, Trafigura, Vitol, Lukoil, et al.
Helsinge executed a conspiracy, which began in 2004 according to the ruling, by bribing PDVSA officials to gain real-time access to oil bidding information, either for themselves or to pass it onto companies like Glencore, Trafigura, Vitol, Lukoil, and others. The bribery payments were organized from Switzerland/Geneva. With that information, Helsinge and its partners continued to win bids repeatedly. The ruling also alleges that members of the conspiracy could access PDVSA’s oil bidding information in real-time from Switzerland.
The loss figures vary, although it is claimed to amount to billions. While there is almost universal consensus on the outrageous percentage (66%) that PDVSA US Litigation Trust managed to extract from the (imprisoned) Nelson Martínez, who had no legal right to establish such a trust or to assign PDVSA’s legitimate rights to claim, no one can reasonably question the validity of PDVSA wanting to return to the Swiss trading houses that negotiated billions through entirely corrupt practices (standard operating procedure).
This ruling is going to cause more than one headache for Jeremy Weir, Ian Taylor, Vagit Alekperov, and especially Ivan Glasenberg, considering the subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice in July to investigate Glencore’s operations in Venezuela. Once investigative authorities start analyzing the merits of the case, namely the evidence contained on a Helsinge server, that’s when the fun begins. To recall: Glencore, Trafigura, and Vitol are also accused of paying millions in bribes to Brazil’s Petrobras, and another investigation into the matter was launched last week.
Morillo, being the weakest link in this chain of corruption, is almost certain to be thrown to the wolves, just as Trafigura did with its own Mariano Marcondes Ferraz. Venezuelan authorities, if serious about fighting corruption, should initiate their own investigation and arrest those involved, most of whom are located in Venezuela. The same goes for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Consulted officials from the Geneva Appeals Criminal Court stated that the ruling should be published by mid-January.