Venezuela is facing a humanitarian crisis. Most Venezuelans lack the time, mental peace, electricity, and access to accurate and timely information about the massive scams orchestrated by Nicolás Maduro and the criminal organization he leads. The trust fund (PDVSA US Litigation Trust) organized by former minister Nelson Martinez with the Boies, Schiller & Flexner law firm is an unprecedented scam, and this comes from someone who has extensively investigated the rampant corruption in Venezuela in recent years.
The trust is, by all accounts, a creation of Wilmer Ruperti, a well-known boliburgués who had nothing to fall back on in the early days of the Chávez era. Ruperti is well aware of the corrupt pathways within PDVSA. He was in charge, for a few years, of a part of the commercialization of oil and its derivatives, as well as the international freight and transport of a significant portion of PDVSA’s output. He managed to position himself during the oil strike by convincing Chavez, Rafael Ramirez, and Ali Rodriguez that, with the assistance of a Russian state shipping company, he could reactivate the flow and thus help the regime break the blockade.
When the Russians investigated due to some defaults on Ruperti’s part, they discovered they were not dealing directly with PDVSA but rather with phantom companies controlled by Ruperti in the name of PDVSA. This raised alarms, leading to a series of inquiries directly to PDVSA. The Russians uncovered Ruperti’s scam and sued him for corruption in American and English courts. What a distinction for this guy: being sued for corruption by the Russians.
This caused his downfall. He had already “made” a multi-million dollar fortune, but he momentarily lost the favor of the gang led by Ramirez. Meanwhile, a former employee of Ruperti named Francisco Morillo set up his own scam, similar to the previous one: marketing of oil and its derivatives from PDVSA. Morillo sought assistance from Trafigura, Glencore, Vitol, Lukoil, etc., which are just as corrupt as PDVSA. It must be said: only the most twisted manage to conduct significant business with entities of the Chávez regime. It didn’t take long for Morillo to enter the big leagues of corruption, and like his former boss, he “made a killing.”
As I understand it, the connection between Morillo and Ruperti involves, shall we say, billions of dollars. All under the management of Rafael Ramirez. Morillo faced marital problems: his ex Vanesa Friedman accused him of domestic violence, and they divorced, but not before Friedman obtained computers containing information on Morillo’s “business.” These computers and information ended up in Ruperti’s hands, who took advantage of his recent friendship with Bill Duker to sell the case to David Boies.
David Boies is the owner and founder of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, whose clients include, among others, the narco-nephews, Harvey Weinstein, the Malaysian criminal Najib Razak, etc. Quite an eminent figure, indeed. So, Boies, through Ruperti, or Ruperti with Boies’ support (it hardly matters), sold the case to Cilia and Maduro, who ordered PDVSA to form a trust which: 1) PDVSA grants Boies 66% of any possible assets, compensations, or gains the lawsuit against Morillo and associated companies could obtain, 2) PDVSA relieves Boies of any exclusivity rights he may have over his firm regarding more than 40 co-defendants. In other words, Boies is suing for fraud against numerous companies representing PDVSA, but if one of the defendants later decides to hire Boies to sue PDVSA for defamation, for example, Boies has full freedom to meddle with PDVSA.
The formation of the trust is signed by Nelson Martinez (imprisoned), and “approved” by the purportedly responsible Prosecutor Reinaldo Muñoz Pedrosa (a lawyer for Cilia). Neither Martinez nor Muñoz have the authority under the Chávez Constitution to sign such an agreement, much less to relinquish any potential benefits and rights of the nation. Neither can enter into agreements of national interest. Only the Assembly, or Maduro with Assembly approval, can do such a thing.
PDVSA supposedly filed a parallel criminal lawsuit in Switzerland. We don’t have many details on how responsibilities were allocated in that one. It should be noted that PDVSA’s Swiss lawyer (Guerric Canonica) is also the Swiss lawyer for… Wilmer Ruperti. Furthermore, the Swiss public prosecutor (Johan Droz) who received the lawsuit, supposedly from PDVSA, is a partner of Canonica’s uncle and a former colleague of Canonica himself. Quite a gem. Both Canonica and his father are heavyweights when it comes to providing services to white-collar criminals all over the world.
The defendants in Boies’ lawsuit, who, as I stated earlier, are a bunch of thugs just like him, obviously know the game, know Ruperti, and realize that the setup of this trust is a monumental scam—like everything involving Ruperti, like everything involving PDVSA—that won’t withstand scrutiny of any kind. It’s not that some are the good and others are the bad. Here, everyone is bad. All of them.
But what’s truly absurd about all this is: while these scams are being aired in American and Swiss courts, which are undoubtedly of national interest, what is the cake-like puppet doing about it? And the Constituent Assembly? And the “Prosecutor”? And Maduro? Nothing…
Boies faces fundamental problems that are impossible to resolve. Martinez is imprisoned. Another participant, trustee Alexis Arellano, is missing. Muñoz had no authority to sign/approve. Manuel Quevedo, the new gorilla at the helm of PDVSA, is doing business with Trafigura while Boies is suing them. Boies accused Ysmel Serrano of being one of Morillo’s accomplices while Serrano was Vice President of PDVSA. Boies managed to get Martinez to grant him 66%, but now Maduro is demanding more than 50%, threatening not to make any Chavista officials available to Boies for deposition.
There is a document floating around (Engagement Letter) in which Boies’ firm agrees to provide part of the funding for the trust. Another part comes from a phantom company called Algamex, registered in Cyprus, whose sole partner is another one from the Isle of Man called Sybaris Limited. Both are under the control of a buddy of Ruperti named Bill Duker, a thug, convicted for overcharging none other than the American government.
The trust has three trustees: Vincent Andrews (secretary of Boies), Edward P Swyer (partner of Bill Duker), and Alexis Arellano (missing). Martinez granted Boies full powers to conclude the trust. PDVSA cannot do it. Decisions about the trust must be approved by a majority vote, meaning the trustees controlled by Boies and his partner Duker have complete control over the trust and the assets it may obtain through litigation.
The 66% that PDVSA granted to Boies will be distributed as follows:
22% for Boies’ firm, which will be divided 65/35 between Boies’ firm and another called Meister Seelig & Fein, which counts among its clients… Wilmer Ruperti.
22% for Algamex (Bill Duker).
22% for The Brennan Group, a company of John Brennan, a former British intelligence agent involved in this scam through… Wilmer Ruperti.
This situation is shocking and hard to believe. The actions of the trust can be summed up as a supposed attempt by PDVSA to recover some of what was defrauded by Morillo from PDVSA, further defrauding PDVSA.