Nicolás Maduro is keen on maintaining rampant corruption: not satisfied with partnering with OFAC-sanctioned kingpins to “boost” PDVSA’s production, he mandated the creation of PETROSUR, a new 60/40 joint venture between the Venezuelan Oil Corporation (CVP — a PDVSA affiliate) and Ibero-American Petroleum Investments Ltd, a shell company from Cyprus worth €1,000 controlled by Alejandro Betancourt, through a Dutch entity named Stichting Administratiekantoor Inversiones Petroleras Iberoamericanas. Betancourt is also recognized as the CEO of Derwick Associates, partner of Francisco Convit in various enterprises and Conspirator 2 in the recent $1.2 billion money laundering indictment by the Department of Justice involving PDVSA, Convit, Maduro, and his sons.
This marks the second joint venture of this nature involving Convit and Betancourt, with Petrozamora (PDVSA-Gazprombank) being the first. In the case of Petrozamora, Derwick and Gazprombank paid a bribe/”bonus” of $904 million (image), for the privilege of forming the JV with CVP.
As in the first instance, all the elements of corruption are present: the JV was approved by someone whose office lacked the authority to grant such approval (Maikel Moreno, president of Venezuela’s Supreme Court); a Dutch shell company “represented” by José Ramón Blanco Balín, who is being investigated in Spain for orchestrating one of the largest corruption scandals involving Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party; a fictitious company from Cyprus managed by proxies Marinos Beros and Eudokia Georgiou; and accused thugs fleeing as partners…