Federal agencies linked to the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Treasury are gathering and expanding information on names that have emerged in recent days regarding allegations of corruption that are shaking the Venezuelan state oil company Pdvsa and the upper echelons of Nicolás Maduro’s regime, according to sources who spoke to Primer Informe.
The agencies are “expanding existing accusations or opening new federal investigations” against the nearly four dozen operators and officials linked to corruption at Pdvsa – most of whom have been arrested – who may have committed a range of violations of U.S. laws, the sources indicated.
Crimes range from violating the sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department against Pdvsa to dollar-based money laundering operations connected to the U.S. financial system with part of the embezzled funds.
Investigations are focused on individuals already under scrutiny or sanctioned by the Treasury Department. At least two U.S. attorneys’ offices, one in the Southern District of Florida based in Miami and the other in the Southern District of Texas based in Houston, are expanding their inquiries.
Leading the investigations is the former Minister of Oil Tarek El Aissami, who has been accused by Nicolás Maduro’s regime of running a criminal organization that embezzled at least $3 billion in dealings with the state oil company and left unpaid invoices totaling $21 billion.
Alongside El Aissami are several of his long-time associates, including Congressman Hugbel Roa, who controlled a group of entrepreneurs that allegedly invested the embezzled money in construction projects and other investments both within and outside of Venezuela.
The Heirs of Álex Saab
Federal authorities are particularly interested in the roles of operators Alessandro Bazzoni, an Italian national, and Joaquín Leal Jiménez, a Mexican citizen, whom the Treasury Department considers the “heirs” of Colombian operator Álex Saab, who is currently detained in the U.S. and designated by Washington as Nicolás Maduro’s frontman.
Alessandro Bazzoni and Joaquín Leal Jiménez
Both operators are seen as trusted associates of El Aissami, a fugitive from U.S. justice – with a $15 million bounty on his head – who was recently ousted by Maduro’s regime and is currently under house arrest.
Both Bazzoni and Leal were sanctioned by OFAC in 2021. Federal investigators determined that following Saab’s arrest in June 2020, Bazzoni took over Saab’s role in coordinating the resale operations of Pdvsa’s crude oil and supplying the ships to collect the crude at Venezuelan ports.
Meanwhile, Joaquín Leal coordinated the “buying and selling of Venezuelan oil from Pdvsa and its subsidiary, Pdvsa Petroleum, S.A.,” providing knowledge of the global oil sector and facilitating transportation and reselling to buyers, in clear violation of U.S. sanctions.
According to OFAC, Bazzoni and Leal used the company Libre Abordo S.A. for the exchange of oil for food, at an inflated price, generating corrupt profits for those involved in the negotiation.
Both are at the center of a criminal investigation for their ongoing participation in the scheme of illegally transporting Venezuelan crude to international markets using means and mechanisms that violate the sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department, the sources indicated.
Details that have emerged about the corruption scheme under investigation by the Venezuelan Attorney General reveal that Bazzoni and Leal teamed up with various shipowners, primarily Greek nationals George Moundreas and Panagis Zissimatos, to buy and operate the necessary vessels to transport all of Pdvsa’s crude oil and refined products to China and other markets, and to manage the generated resources without accountability.
George Moundreas and Panagis Zissimatos
Additionally, Bazzoni and Leal hired Erik Roveta, an Italian residing in Athens, to be the administrator and operator of all the vessels required for this scam. Roveta is a broker who serves as a technical manager and owns several specialized companies like Sernavimar SRL and Axione Chartering OU, among others, which are also under investigation.
Bazzoni and Leal also partnered with Swiss national Phillipp Apikian of Swiss Oil Trading SA, based in Geneva and also under U.S. sanctions, to market Venezuelan crude and refined products in Asia.
The two operators employed a Mexican financier, José Luis Chávez Calva, who resides between London and Dubai and works for Joaquín Leal’s organization, to collect and facilitate all payments for the corruption scheme estimated to have mobilized resources exceeding $8 billion, according to investigations.
José Luis Chávez Calva
Additionally, four other companies – Schlager Business Group SdRL, Cosmo Resources PTE Ltd, Delta Group Ltd, and United Petroleum Corp. – were utilized by Bazzoni and Leal for the operation of oil-for-food exchanges orchestrated by Álex Saab and Álvaro Pulido, according to the Treasury Department. It is estimated that in this scheme, which took place between 2019 and 2022, Bazzoni and Leal, along with Saab and Pulido, marketed over 50 million barrels of crude and refined products from Pdvsa, valued at an approximate $5 billion. However, the ultimate destination of both the proceeds and the food negotiated in exchange for Venezuelan oil remains unknown.
Following the arrest of Álex Saab and the designation by OFAC, Bazzoni and Leal became prominent proteges of Tarek El Aissami, who until recently was the powerful lord of Pdvsa, along with a significant military-controlled wing of the regime, led by Colonel Antonio Pérez Suárez, Vice President of Trade and Supply.
Colonel Pérez Suárez, according to accusations in Venezuela, was at the center of the corruption scheme as he demanded cash payment of millions for each oil and petroleum product-laden ship from Pdvsa, whose sales never reached the coffers of the Venezuelan corporation.
Others protected by El Aissami included Alejandro Arroyo (currently detained in Venezuela) and José Camacho, who controlled the firm Walker International DWC LLC, based in Dubai, which was used as part of the group of companies through which Bazzoni conducted his operations.
That single firm – Walker International – mobilized nearly 4 million barrels of crude oil between 2021 and 2022, originating from the Petrocedeño, Amuay, Cardon, and Petro San Felix terminals, according to a company presentation reviewed by Primer Informe.
Yet El Aissami was not the only one sustaining protected operators in the international Venezuelan oil business. Figures like Diosdado Cabello and the Rodríguez brothers (Delcy and Jorge) had a significant stake in the corruption scheme, with operators who typically had little to no experience in the oil industry, whose sole purpose was to extract billions of dollars from the Venezuelan state oil company.
An example of this is Miguel Silva, an operator protected by Diosdado Cabello, linked to the firms Misil Group Ltd and Grupo Iveex Insaat. Silva’s businesses with Bazzoni benefited him and his protector, but one of their last operations failed unexpectedly.
According to the testimony of a businessman who closely followed this operation, Miguel Silva managed to load the MT Cecilia ship to negotiate it in the international marketplace through his firm Misil Group Ltd, but once loaded, the vessel was blocked and later unloaded because he had not yet paid the commission owed to Colonel Pérez Suárez.
This event was one of the triggers that precipitated the investigations by the Anticorruption Police of the dictatorship.
Operators Majed Khalil Majzoub and Arturo Sarmiento, proteges of the Rodríguez brothers, participated in the corruption scheme through the firms Montmagastre Ventures Limited and Five Oceans Ltd.
Through Montmagastre Ventures LTD, Pdvsa contracted to load Merey 16 – a high-quality crude – on several crude transport ships. One of them was the MT Kelly, a VLCC tanker with over 250,000 tons of capacity. They also used the MT Berlina (Suezmax, with the capacity of 1 million barrels of crude), which, however, they renamed Mars A, currently in international waters near Venezuela, waiting to enter port. Lastly, another ship was designated as MT Ndros (another VLCC), a false name to prevent these ships from being detained and seized at sea, representing a new trend in Pdvsa’s corrupt dealings.
The Fraud Scheme
In fact, the renaming of the vessels transporting the cargo was a crucial part of the corruption scheme.
The most notable case was that of the tanker operated by the Majzoub brothers’ firm – proteges of the Rodríguez brothers – which they named FortOne, a false name for a vessel that was actually called MT Nikel. Remarkably, the ship now has another name: Orbit I.
When the Anticorruption Police launched the operation, the FortOne ship hoisted anchor in a “hasty” manner. At that moment it was loaded but still did not have the sailing authorization, and a group of Venezuelan agents were still on board. Without waiting for authorization, the ship set sail, and when it reached international waters, the captain decided to lower the Venezuelan agents onto a raft and leave them adrift. The agents were later rescued by the Venezuelan Coast Guard.
The operators of the ship – Alessandro Bazzoni, Joaquín Leal, and George Moundreas – simply seized the cargo of the vessel, valued at several tens of millions of dollars.
As part of the anticorruption operation, however, the regime has so far confiscated two vessels linked to the corrupt plot: the MT Rana and MT Oreo, which are also suspected of being fake names.
A third vessel, the MT Gent (another fake name), is at the Jose terminal loaded with 2 million barrels of Merey 16, but it is unknown if it was able to depart. This cargo ship is part of the fleet controlled by Alessandro Bazzoni.
The losses from the corruption scheme are currently estimated at around $21 billion, according to documents published by Reuters, an unprecedented figure.
The federal investigation in the United States is trying to establish, with the help of informants and witnesses, whether part of this money touched the U.S. financial system, sources indicated.
The corruption scheme operated with various actors and procedures that reveal the total impunity with which they operated for years.
Together with Colonel Pérez Suárez, operators Bazzoni and Leal would order the loading of the first ships to already contacted clients, expediting their departure after payment of cash to the military.
When the ships were already in international waters, the operators would propose to the client, through broker Erik Roveta, to charter more ships, guaranteeing the cargo of the first ships already in international waters. When those newly chartered vessels arrived in Venezuela, Colonel Pérez Suárez would delay the loading, generating extraordinary waits justifying keeping the product of the first ship to cover the bills of the second or third.
The delay of a VLCC ship could cost up to $150,000 per day, depending on the size of the tanker, and the wait could last up to 40 days. After that time, the debt incurred due to the delay, which Pdvsa had to cover, in addition to freight costs that reached about $20 million, was “settled” with the crude that was already in international waters.
The profits from the sale of the crude were split between the operators and their protectors, creating a fraudulent scheme that plundered tens of millions of barrels of crude from Pdvsa between 2021 and 2022.
So far, it is unclear exactly where these resources obtained by operators linked to Tarek El Aissami, Diosdado Cabello, and the Rodríguez brothers ended up, although in recent hours news have emerged about the alleged recovery of more than $400 million in cash and properties from individuals implicated in the scheme, who are currently detained in Venezuela.
Casto Ocando | @cocando
Primer Informe
