Up until recently, Francisco Carrasquero was seen as a secondary figure or assistant to the Argentine Roberto Wellisch in the structure of Palmat, a company that charged colossal commissions for contracts with the basic industries of Guyana and the sale of agricultural machinery as part of the alliance between the governments of Caracas and Buenos Aires. However, a review of his accounts at Credit Suisse and his real estate investments in Miami will change this perception.
The Argentine entrepreneur Gerardo Montenegro found a profitable business with the Venezuelan government. He purchased goods in China or the United States and then resold them at ten times the original price to state-owned companies managed by Chavismo. In one of these business transactions, Montenegro bought products from Evergreen Industrial Co, a Chinese company, for $123,000 in August 2010, and the next month sold them to the Fund for Socialist Agricultural Development (Fondas), a Venezuelan state enterprise, for $1.8 million. This operation yielded a profit that multiplied his initial investment by 14.
However, more than just a successful international trader, Montenegro is considered by Argentine authorities as merely a link in a more complex scheme that allowed companies from the southern country to do business with Venezuela in exchange for paying high commissions to intermediary companies. Palmat was one of the firms acting as intermediaries in these contracts made under a state umbrella: the bilateral trust signed by former presidents Néstor Kirchner and Hugo Chávez.
Palmat, run by Argentine Roberto Wellisch and Venezuelan Francisco José Carrasquero, received $600,000 from Montenegro’s company, according to a report from the Argentine Financial Information Unit (UIF). Since 2009, Judge Julián Ercolini and prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita have been investigating these commissions, hypothesizing that they could conceal hidden bribes for Kirchnerist and Chavista officials overseeing such operations.
While their lobbying business thrived, the men behind Palmat established a network of companies in tax havens, managed accounts in Switzerland, and invested in various luxury properties in Miami, according to investigations by Infobae, the Buenos Aires newspaper La Nación, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), following four months of joint coverage of the Suisse Secrets leak.
The multimillion-dollar commissions charged by Palmat were funneled through opaque jurisdictions, which has so far prevented Argentine justice from locating the funds obtained from those operations. Carrasquero and Wellisch are under investigation in Argentine courts for having charged 15% commissions on a long list of transactions. They have admitted to acting as intermediaries in at least 39 contracts.
In April 2006, Venezuelan Carrasquero opened an account at Credit Suisse, which reached a maximum balance in June 2009: 2.7 million Swiss francs (about three million dollars), according to information from the anonymous leak received by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that gave rise to the Suisse Secrets. Eduviges Auristela Rodríguez de Carrasquero, a relative of the Venezuelan, is listed as a co-holder of that account.
Despite the scandal over these commission payments being made public in Argentina as early as 2010, the Swiss bank did not close Carrasquero’s account then, which remained open at least until 2014. Part of the funds obtained during those years are now invested in luxury mansions in Miami.
Infobae was in contact with Carrasquero before publishing this story. The Venezuelan lawyer asserted in an email exchange that he would respond to journalistic inquiries but ultimately did not answer the submitted questionnaire.
The Trust: The Original Sin
The story began in April 2004, when then-presidents Chávez and Kirchner signed the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement between Argentina and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the first bilateral business agreement between the two political allies. How did this trust operate? Venezuela entered credit with products from the state oil company Pdvsa, while various Argentine companies balanced that credit with the sale of food and machinery to improve agricultural production in Venezuelan territory. The relationship between states served as a safeguard for businessmen in dealing with a client like Venezuela, which typically lacked payment guarantees.
Palmat Intertrade was established as a company on April 16, 2004, in Panama, just ten days after the Argentine and Venezuelan presidents signed the cooperation agreement, according to Infobae, based on documents from the Pandora Papers investigation, led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
José María Alustiza, president of the Argentine Chamber of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers (Cafma), was one of the entrepreneurs who had to go through Palmat. He explained before the judiciary the role of this company in these contracts: “When we had trouble collecting, we spoke with Palmat, and they managed the solution. A power of attorney was granted so that Carrasquero, who lived in Venezuela, could sign an addendum as an attorney-in-fact… The people at Palmat knew the officials from the public agencies and understood the bureaucratic handling of a file. Their efforts were always successful.”
A dozen businessmen echoed Alustiza’s sentiments before Judge Ercolini: it was mandatory to engage the mediation services of Palmat if they wanted to export agricultural machinery to Venezuela through the bilateral trust, judicial sources informed. That contract established a payment of a 15% commission on the total transaction, agreed the businessmen.
Palmat publicly acknowledged having been “selected by 39 Argentine agricultural machinery manufacturing companies” to conduct business with Venezuela. The UIF reports indicated that among the suspicious operations were contracts made by Fondas and the Venezuelan state company Pedro Camejo, both under the Ministry of Agriculture and Land of that country, then led by Chavista leader Elías Jaua, who also served as vice president (2010-12) and chancellor (2013-14).
The businessman Alustiza recalled before the court how the relationship with Palmat was managed: “There wasn’t a rule for paying Palmat. There was a commitment to paying them as firms received payments.” But he noted that after the first few years, the amount began to seem excessive: “[To the businessmen] It seemed very expensive the commission. They already knew all the authorities and understood the export procedures. The industrialists wanted to reduce the commission; they continued with trading but with a lower commission.”
Months later, Palmat’s political contacts materialized in Buenos Aires when Carrasquero attended an official event at Casa Rosada, the seat of the Argentine presidency, on August 6, 2007, alongside Venezuelan Guido Antonini Wilson. The list of invitees, certified by the General Secretariat of the Presidency, had been compiled by the Ministry of Federal Planning, managed by Julio De Vido. In practice, this ministry operated a sort of parallel embassy with the Chavista government, reinforced by business on both sides. Carrasquero entered the Government House representing Palmat.
The commercial relations with Caracas were handled by José María Olazagasti from Buenos Aires, who was the right-hand man of then-minister Julio De Vido, as revealed by former Argentine official Claudio Uberti in his confession as a repentant witness in the so-called Notebooks of Corruption case. Olazagasti was also responsible for facilitating Antonini Wilson’s entry into Casa Rosada, just 48 hours after a suitcase with $800,000 in cash had been seized from the Venezuelan after arriving aboard a Pdvsa plane at Aeroparque Jorge Newberry in Buenos Aires. This would mark the beginning of the so-called Suitcase Case.
Late Alert
The Palmat business continued, but not without controversies. An anonymous complaint reached the office of then-Ombudsman Eduardo Mondino in 2008. The complaint indicated the same as what a handful of local businessmen later confirmed before the courts: those wanting to do business under the umbrella of the bilateral trust “had to go through a notary office on Rivadavia Street (in Buenos Aires), where they committed themselves before a representative of Palmat to pay 15% as a service fee,” the complaint stated.
The scandal made headlines in 2010. It shocked Argentina and Venezuela but also Panama. Palmat had resorted to the law firm Alemán, Cordero, Galindo y Lee (Alcogal), a Panamanian firm specializing in offshore services, whose clients were exposed in evasion and money laundering schemes following the Pandora Papers. However, Alcogal executives raised alarms when they learned that both the firm and Carrasquero and Wellisch were under scrutiny by Argentine justice.
Jaime Alemán, one of the founders of Alcogal, sent an internal note to his team in April 2010 that quoted fragments from a newspaper article detailing the accusations against Palmat and Alcogal in Argentina. “Based on what the article says, we proceeded to resign as agents of this company and reiterated that we had nothing to do with the business and matters of Palmat,” he affirmed, according to emails that are part of the Pandora Papers.
But Alcogal took further actions. “The firm is embroiled in fraudulent business,” detailed a compliance officer from the Panama firm, who listed the questioned names in a spreadsheet titled Alert List. This included Palmat International, Palmat Intertrade, as well as Wellisch, and Venezuelans Carrasquero, Domingo Alvarez Boccardo, Yone Boccardo, Marc David Reich, and the American billionaire Marc Rich, founder of Glencore.
Despite the alerts, Alcogal maintained companies opened by Palmat’s partners in their personal names. Stanclif Corp, Morside Inc, and Furtherfield Corp were registered almost simultaneously with Palmat Intertrade, between 2006 and 2007, with bearer shares and managed from the Swiss firm Belesta AG, located on Beethoven Street in Zurich. Over the years, Alcogal even sent various documents signed by the formal directors of these offshore companies, who were employees of that firm, including bank forms to operate an account at UBS Bank in Switzerland, according to documents that appear in the Pandora Papers.
The Argentine Wellisch, president of Palmat, had also opened other offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands, which allowed him to purchase three properties in Miami, as revealed by Infobae last month.
But neither judicial proceedings nor warnings in the offshore world stopped the business or scared Credit Suisse. While Judge Ercolini began the initial steps of his investigation, Carrasquero’s bank account in Switzerland peaked: it managed nearly 2.7 million Swiss francs (almost three million dollars) on June 30, 2009. The scandal had already become public, yet it did not prevent Palmat from signing more contracts, like the one mentioned with Montenegro.
From Credit Suisse, in response to an inquiry from OCCRP, they stated: “As a leading financial institution globally, Credit Suisse operates in many jurisdictions and is deeply aware of its responsibility to its clients and to the overall financial system to ensure the highest standards of conduct are met.” They added, “Like all banks, Credit Suisse has a strict duty of confidentiality and care to its clients and cannot comment on claims made regarding individuals, whether or not they are clients. Thus, while it is not possible to provide a detailed public rebuttal to these accusations, we can confirm that they have been properly recorded and, where appropriate, examined.”
The Argentine justice system summoned entrepreneurs who reiterated the methodology used for business within the bilateral trust, but the case has remained stalled for a decade due to the lack of cooperation from Chavista officials. Authorities sent requests to the United States, Panama, and Venezuela to learn about Carrasquero and Wellisch’s background, as well as their asset details, among other information, but there was no cooperation from the Venezuelan government.
Years ago, Wellisch offered his version of events in a statement sent to the Buenos Aires newspaper Página 12. “I am a man of values and ethics. My company has thirty years dedicated to commercial intermediation. Palmat has knowledge and infrastructure that adds value to our clients’ and allies’ operations. We have branches and offices in several cities worldwide,” he stated. He added, “Palmat was selected individually by thirty-nine agricultural machinery manufacturers in Argentina. The professional relationship was stipulated in contracts, directly signed without mediation. They were absolutely legal, signed, and registered in Buenos Aires in a voluntary and transparent manner. I reaffirm, and it is fully documented, that we performed professional work, that the professional relationship was framed in legal contracts, and was invoiced transparently and legally. The contract was fulfilled with hard work and without any claims from either party.”
Roberto Jorge Wellisch and his company, Palmat, had a deep understanding of how to do business in Chavista Venezuela. By this time, they had been representatives for years of the Swiss giant in raw materials marketing, Glencore, transitioning from being buyers for the state-owned heavy industry in Guyana to becoming its lender, creditor, and finally manager. Wellisch gained control over the production of bauxite and aluminum south of the Orinoco River. His public prominence left his partner, Francisco Carrasquero, in an apparent secondary role that the revelations from Suisse Secrets now correct.
Carrasquero’s Properties
Carrasquero’s account was closed in August 2014. His final balance had been 600,000 Swiss francs (about 654,000 dollars), according to data from Suisse Secrets. The records consulted by Infobae confirm that Carrasquero officially decided in April of that year to enter as the only final beneficiary of the Panamanian companies. The three offshore entities stopped being administered by the Swiss fund Belesta AG and, instead, documentation requests now came from Vizcaya Capital, a fund with offices in Miami, United States.
By that time, the Venezuelan had already chosen Miami as the destination for real estate investments channeled through the offshore company Chandler Ventures LLC. Carrasquero established this paper company on December 31, 2012, in the British Virgin Islands, one of the most opaque jurisdictions in the world.
Carrasquero entrusted the law firm Trident Trust, another firm specializing in operating in tax havens, with the creation of the new company. He presented himself as a Venezuelan lawyer residing in Caracas and stated that the purpose of this offshore -where he appeared as the sole shareholder- was to purchase real estate. The fund’s origin? “Personal income and savings from accumulated profits in the oil and electricity business,” he declared on the firm’s compliance form.
Seven days after its creation, Chandler Ventures LLC purchased a house overlooking Hammock Lake in Coral Gables, Miami. The residence, surrounded by lush greenery before reaching the lake’s shores, spans a 3,600 square meter plot. The property’s value at the time of purchase, in January 2013, was $2.3 million. When the Venezuelan sold it in October 2018, the price had risen to $2.9 million, according to public records from Miami-Dade County.
The U.S. Immigration Department became concerned about one of Carrasquero’s Panamanian companies: in 2015, authorities requested information about the Panamanian company Stanclif Corp from the administrator of Vizcaya Capital. Alcogal sent a formal letter to that government office to explain that the offshore had been properly constituted and maintained all documentation in order.
Carrasquero did not stop his investments in Miami. He requested a mortgage of $600,000 and bought a second property: another mansion, this time in the Pinecrest Gardens area. The first official documents linking him to the property are signed building permits, which received municipal approval in September 2016.
The Venezuelan was linked to Maxipetro Properties Ltd, the new holder of the property, only in June 2020, when the purchase was completed through this entity. The operation to acquire this house, which has 1,100 square meters of construction and a pool under the shade of palm trees, was finalized for $1.5 million during the pandemic.
Twelve years after the scandal over Palmat’s commissions, the money continues to circulate around the world, either in investments in Miami by its partners or through other encrypted channels, like the use of companies in tax havens. Justice, regulatory bodies, and authorities from Argentina, Venezuela, Switzerland, the United States, Panama, and the British Virgin Islands have not succeeded in stopping the flow of funds that raise suspicions of illegality. Nor did Credit Suisse, which allowed Carrasquero to move his millions for eight years without any issues and then close his account and withdraw the money.
Source: Infobae | La Nación | OCCRP