On July 23rd, the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on Santiago José Morón Hernández and Ricardo José Morón Hernández for their involvement in illegal financial dealings with the Venezuelan government. This action dealt another blow to the funds managed by the chavismo, which come from gold and coltan extracted from Guayana. These resources are marketed through mixed companies awarded to associates linked to Nicolás Maduro and his son, Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra “Nicolasito”, as well as to Cilia Flores and other high-ranking officials, as reported by La Gran Aldea.
The press release states that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), an agency of the Department of the Treasury, sanctioned brothers Santiago José Morón Hernández, an attorney, and Ricardo José Morón Hernández, an engineer and stockbroker, for supporting Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra and the corrupt activities of members of his father’s illegitimate regime, Nicolás Maduro Moros. This measure corresponds to Executive Order (EO) 13692, in its amended version.
The reported activities include the “distribution of assets for Maduro and his family worldwide. Maduro Guerra hired Santiago and Ricardo to conduct business on his behalf. The two brothers utilized various companies to handle transactions. Additionally, Santiago serves as Maduro Guerra’s chief assistant and accompanies him regularly while Ricardo manages operational activities.”
“Separately, Maduro Guerra, Santiago, Ricardo, and their closest allies are central figures in Venezuela’s gold industry. Maduro Guerra is accused of engaging in illegal transactions, including selling gold extracted in Venezuela and sent from the Central Bank of Venezuela, which was sanctioned by OFAC on April 17, 2019, under EO 13850. Santiago and Ricardo oversee the financial mechanisms of the illegal gold scheme,” the OFAC indicates.
“As a result of this action, all properties and interests in the property of these individuals located in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. Moreover, any entity owned, directly or indirectly, 50% or more by the designated individuals is also blocked. The OFAC regulations generally prohibit all dealings by U.S. persons or within (or in transit) to the United States that involve any property or interest in property of blocked or designated persons,” the statement adds.
Business Among Friends
The mechanism established by the Maduro government to process and market gold from the Arco Minero features six mixed companies, part of whose production goes to the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) while another portion is clandestinely exported to allied countries like Iran and Turkey. These companies were created or agreed upon between the government and individuals linked to the power elite. One of the key operators in this setup has been “Nicolasito,” with recognized friends and partners of the presidential family sitting on the boards of these companies.
Key players in this business include the Morón Hernández brothers and Colombian Alex Nain Saab Morán. They also have proxy arrangements involving Cilia Flores’s sons, Yoswal Alexander and Yosser Daniel Gavidia Flores, through individuals like Mario Enrique Bonilla Vallera, a fugitive from U.S. justice, and Raúl Eduardo Saavedra Leterni.
The Morón Hernández brothers are originally from Maracaibo, Zulia state. They appeared together with their father as founders of the company Cresmo in 1987. Since 2007, they have executed projects in Fondur, Metro de Maracaibo, Ducolsa, and the Ministry of Prisons according to the National Contractor Registry (RNC), despite having a history of contract breaches, incomplete works, and irregular labor payments, with seven lawsuits in court.
“Bonilla Vallera and Yoswal Gavidia Flores studied at Santa María University and graduated in May 2013 in the XVIII promotion, mentioning Audiovisual Communication. They had their own program on the Assembly National radio station 102.3 FM when it had a chavista majority, following the expropriation of the Belfort National Circuit, and shared the same circle of friends,” noted journalist Patricia Marcano from the Armando.info portal. Moreover, he worked for Cilia Flores from January 2013 at the Attorney General’s Office, according to data from the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security (IVSS), until June 2014.
Saavedra Leterni, a lawyer, appears as a partner or legal representative in 13 out of 25 companies linked with Bonilla. “This is a business relationship stemming from a close friendship, and they have left footprints on social media. Both have shared together at the birthdays of Maduro’s stepchildren and with Maduro Guerra himself; they all were born in 1990,” Marcano reported.
Other businesses are managed by Eduardo José Rivas, a member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) from Bolívar state, who, despite lacking any experience in the mining sector, appears as president of the Domingo Sifontes Mining Industrial Complex in El Callao, with an investment of 30 million euros. He also owns Inversiones y Representaciones Glenduar, where he controls the majority shares and is president of the Manuel Piar Complex in Puerto Ordaz. Former director of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) Manuel Cristopher Figuera stated to the Armando.info portal that Rivas “is a trusted man of Nicolasito.”
At the Domingo Sifontes Complex, another company, Corporación Petroglobal, was added. The owners are Bonilla and Saavedra, according to the Armando.info report.
Journalist Patricia Marcano from Armando.info reveals that Bonilla Vallera was identified in 2018 as a frontman for Cilia’s children in an investigation led in the United States by the Southern District Criminal Court under the name “Money Flight Operation”, tracking the laundering of 1.2 billion dollars from Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA); for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was declared a fugitive by U.S. justice for transferring 200 million dollars from oil funds to the stepchildren of a high-ranking Venezuelan official as part of a money laundering network.
In Search of Gold
Since late 2015, in light of the oil industry collapse, the government, under Nicolás Maduro’s leadership, found in gold extraction a quick avenue to generate new foreign currency income.
After expropriating major technology companies such as Crystallex and Gold Reserve in 2008, a new strategy was initiated, inviting foreign companies from countries such as China, Russia, DR Congo, South Africa, Palestine, Germany, and Switzerland for projects underscored as the “Mining Motor of the Bolivarian Economic Agenda”.
On February 24, 2016, Decree No. 2.248, Official Gazette No. 40.855, was enacted, creating the National Strategic Development Zone Arco Minero del Orinoco, covering an area of 111,800 square kilometers (km2) in Bolívar state to exploit gold, iron, bauxite, coltan, diamond, manganese, and granite.
The plan is projected through mixed enterprises, and by late 2016, the establishment of mixed companies named: Siembra Minera, Minera Metales del Sur, Minera Ecosocialista Parguaza, and Minera Ecosocialista Oro Azul, for coltan exploitation was formalized in the Official Gazette.
A common characteristic in this new plan is that Maduro’s government focused on “small-scale mining” or artisanal operations for gold and diamond extraction from the Arco Minero del Orinoco. At that time, following the exit of large companies, the area had been taken over by approximately 40,000 artisanal miners. This aggressive gold exploitation utilized outdated technology, employing materials like mercury and cyanide without environmental controls, directly disturbing the vegetative layer of forested regions and rivers. Such destruction extended even to protected and forest reserve areas.
Starting in April 2017, gold bars began entering the vaults of the BCV, originating from purchases made through the Council of Popular Miners in the Arco Minero del Orinoco by the state-owned Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana (CVG) such as Minerven, which are paid through the Venezuelan Economic and Social Development Bank (Bandes).
Indeed, the most important mining companies receiving the gold material to be converted into bars were firms established specifically for that purpose by Maduro’s government, assigned to fronts and associates.
At the same time, following the establishment of the Arco Minero del Orinoco, small gold miners in the southern part of Bolívar state faced intimidation from gangs, military sectors, and irregular groups (FARC and ELN) that took over the area. They began competing for control of the deposits and extraction routes, generating chaos, with numerous massacres reported in the region.
The Saab Connection
Colombian financier Alex Saab, on the verge of extradition to the U.S. from Cape Verde, associated with the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) program, also connected through several companies to manage the gold business and other sectors.
According to reports published by Armando.info, a presidential decree on July 20, 2018, officially designated Adrián Antonio Perdomo Mata (Official Gazette No. 41.472) as president of the General Mining Company of Venezuela (GVG Minerven).
A month later, on August 31, another decree by Maduro authorized the establishment of Mibiturven, S.A., a bi-national mixed company between Minerven and a Turkish-registered entity named Marilyns Proje Yatirim, S.A.
Perdomo Mata was an executive at the company Trading Energy and Coal (Trenaco), registered in Caracas in October 2014, and dissolved two years later. He served as the general deputy manager of that firm, which mirrored the same name in Colombia, also now liquidated.
The Venezuelan subsidiary of Trenaco and the Global Fund for Affordable Housing are both linked to Saab’s businesses, located in the Galipán Center and registered under the same phone number with the RNC.
Journalist Roberto Deniz notes that Perdomo Mata is listed as president of Aleaciones Metálicas del Pacífico, S.A., a Panamanian firm created on August 5, 2015, where he shares a board with Amir Nassar Tayupe, Saab’s lawyer in Venezuela, who represents him in a lawsuit against four journalists from Armando.info.
In August 2015, PDVSA made public one of its largest tenders in recent years: a multibillion-dollar project in the Faja del Orinoco, the world’s largest crude oil reservoir, designed to bolster its declining production, according to research by Reuters.
Out of nowhere, Trenaco, a small transport and oil trade company from Colombia, with no relevant experience, based in Switzerland but managed from Colombia, outshone major oil service companies like Halliburton, Schlumberger, and Weatherford to win a contract worth 4.5 billion dollars, according to a PDVSA document.
Saab never appeared on Trenaco’s board, “but a July 2016 investigation by Reuters revealed he was in full control of Trenaco, based on internal correspondence review and audio files from WhatsApp involving Saab,” reported Deniz.
In November 2011, Saab signed an agreement with his construction firm headquartered in Bogotá, called Global Fund for Construction, to build social housing in Venezuela; he even appeared on state television signing the agreement alongside Chávez and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
The former Colombian president clarified to the newspaper El Tiempo that “Saab never signed on behalf of Colombia. When it came time to sign, the representative of that company, which was Mr. Alex Saab, appeared, someone we did not know. There was never any agreement or arrangement with the Colombian government.”