Internal documents from PDVSA’s SAP system reviewed by this site confirm that Proton Sociedad Limitada and Schlager Business Group, a subsidiary of Libre Abordo, are used interchangeably by Alex Saab in oil lifting operations in Venezuela. The system also indicates that Libre Abordo and other shell companies controlled by Saab are under prepayment conditions. This is not the first time PDVSA has imposed such terms in its commercial operations. However, in the case of Libre Abordo, there are discrepancies that warrant further investigation.
PDVSA’s SAP does not have any locally registered agent for Libre Abordo. Filtered emails and loading programs revealed here show SEMAFERCA and Cygnus Marine as Saab’s agents, yet SAP refers to them as “for naming.” The food-for-oil agreement between Libre Abordo and CORPOVEX involved the delivery of food (corn) and tanker trucks exchanged for oil. By January 2020, Libre Abordo had “prepaid” PDVSA $57,669,002.23 for about 2.7 million barrels. CORPOVEX received the first delivery of 242 tanker trucks on April 30, by which time Libre Abordo had already lifted over 26 million barrels of crude from PDVSA.
Industry experts familiar with PDVSA’s operations indicated that the prepaid oil arrangement may have been driven by Libre Abordo’s inability to raise capital. PDVSA has demanded that established multinational energy companies prepay for oil in recent times. We believe that given Saab’s track record in Venezuela, his connections with Nicolás Maduro, and his associations with convicted drug traffickers, along with the almost unique manner in which he has transitioned from construction to food procurement, foreign exchange, gold from mining and exporting, to oil production and crude marketing, the term “prepayment” is simply the accounting term chosen to record crude deliveries that are not properly compensated.
Despite extensive investigation and inquiries, this site has been unable to obtain evidence of Saab’s prepaid payments to PDVSA.
Other sources have reported that Saab and his representatives are executing a highly complex money laundering operation involving cash and cryptocurrencies through various shells in Mexico, Spain, Ukraine, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Venezuela. New special purpose vehicles are constantly being registered to evade Treasury sanctions—Libre Abordo, Schlager Business Group, Proton Sociedad Limitada, and Delta Limited Liability Company are just the latest examples.
Discrepancies in PDVSA’s crude loading line and its SAP system are puzzling. For instance, the tanker Kelly loaded 2 MB of Merey on March 25. It had to wait at anchor for health inspection and authorization due to COVID-19. The bill of lading was issued on March 31. While the alignment data registers the Amuay anchorage as the loading port, it actually loaded at the José Terminal. It departed toward Malta and turned off its AIS off the Paria Peninsula. The destination then changed to Turkey, followed by Gibraltar and Lagos. Alignment data shows PDVSA Petróleo as the client. But what becomes interesting is the corresponding information: PDVSA’s SAP system has no record of Kelly in March/April. Two million barrels of Merey seemingly unaccounted for.
We have been tracking the tanker Kelly on its journey through the Mediterranean. Shipping data lists @PDVSA as the client for its 2MB of Merey. No StS noted. Jomadi Group (another front for #AlexSaab?) is behind it, according to our sources Cc @USTreasury #OOTT ht @Simon85205764 https://t.co/VdUfMlemny pic.twitter.com/g8JhQac70z
— Alek Boyd “Plagiarism is corruption” (@infodi0) June 1, 2020
Further data analysis shows, for example, Thomas Haeusler, previously mentioned here as a representative of Procerium Energy PTE Ltd, associated with a cargo lifted by Libre Abordo in February (Delos Voyager). While the loading line has some of these details, it lacks the data displayed in SAP regarding Tipco liftings, which began in late January and have continued since then.
Proton Sociedad Limitada and Delta Limited Liability Company do not appear in PDVSA’s SAP. Not even once. However, in the loading line, Schlager appeared on April 30 as a client, concerning a 1MB Merey shipment that would be transported by the tanker Demetrios (OMI: 9432048). On May 6, the same Demetrios was set to load 1MB of Special Hamaca Blend (SHB), yet this time the client was registered as Proton Sociedad Limitada. There is no vessel record of Demetrios in SAP…
Payment terms that apply to other companies vary from cash (Curaçao Oil Company) to five days (Chevron) and 90 days (Cementos Cienfuegos) after the bill of lading is issued. There are also discrepancies regarding prices. The same crude or blends are sold at different prices to different clients simultaneously. While this is not exclusive to Saab’s shells, the system shows significant accountability issues in recording their transactions specifically. Is this deliberate?
Interestingly, Chevron and ENI have lifted cargoes from Puerto Miranda. These could be related to Petrozamora, that is, Alejandro Betancourt and his treasury sanctioned the shell controlled by Gazprom.
Prepayment conditions have been applied to Libre Abordo, Schlager Business Group, Richeart International Limited, Futura Asia Limited (controlled by Johnny Cecotto Jr), Asia Charm Ltd Fze, Suelopetrol Exploración y Producción, and Main Business Charter Corp.
Libre Abordo announced at the end of May that it was going bankrupt. It claimed to have a debt of about $90 million but did not specify the creditors involved. This was followed by an extraordinary announcement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that Venezuela (undoubtedly a creditor) would bring Libre Abordo’s bankruptcy case to the International Criminal Court. Questions regarding its alleged bankruptcy were sent to Libre Abordo’s public relations contact over 48 hours ago. No response has been received.