A Venezuelan flag flies proudly at the equestrian training center in Florida, USA. Palm Beach G&C Farm, owned by Venezuelan couple Gustavo and Carolina Mirabal, aims to train riders for high-level tournaments such as the World Cup Finals, World Equestrian Games, and the Olympics, as stated on their website. A notable champion from the farm is Emanuel Andrade, who is the son of Alejandro Andrade, a former national treasurer of Venezuela, currently serving time in the United States for bribery and money laundering.
The facility boasts a jumping arena, a treadmill for eight horses, an individual treadmill, six paddocks, a laundry room, a hay storage, a food and medicine room, and a two-bedroom apartment for the grooms. G&C Farm spans 4 acres (approximately 16,187.43 square meters) and started operations in 2009 in Wellington, Florida, not only as a training center but also as a sponsor of equestrian events: $75,000 for the Nations Cup held annually during the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF), $50,000 for the Palm Beach Jumper Derby, and $200,000 for the Gene Mische American Invitational, along with a sponsorship for the G&C Farm Leading Rider Award at the Gucci Master tournament in Paris and twelve 1.45-meter trials included in the FEI Rolex Challenge. This significant investment aims to develop equestrian sports, according to the Poderopedia website.
Gustavo and Carolina have three daughters, all featured in a photo on the G&C Farm website as owners and riders of the organization. However, Gustavo Adolfo Mirabal Castro is the businessman of the family: he appears in public databases as president and vice president of G&C Farm Inc., alongside Mónica Calabrese as director, Iveth Landa as secretary, and Carlos Mirabal as treasurer. Pablo Barrios, María Fernanda Faría, and Ramón F. Llaneza previously held the presidency. Mirabal Castro and his wife have managed the company Wellington Property Holding LLC since 2009. Their son, Gustavo Mirabal Hernández, from a previous marriage to Alexandra Bejarano Hernández, runs the Panamanian company Carpe Diem Productions, S. A.
The oldest of the Mirabal family is Gustavo Alfredo Mirabal Bustillo, grandfather to Gustavo Mirabal Castro: a former leader of the political party Acción Democrática, ex-member of Congress (where he chaired the Chamber of Deputies’ Commission of Oversight), ex-minister of Development during Jaime Lusinchi’s government, and former governor of Miranda state (1985). He was among the signatories of the “Manifesto for Freedom” in 2006 after the president of the Confederation of Workers of Venezuela (CTV), Carlos Ortega, and three officers of Venezuela’s Armed Forces – Colonel Jesús Faría, Colonel Darío Faría, and Captain Rafael Farías – were released from Ramo Verde prison. In 2013, he showed support for the candidate of the Democratic Unity Roundtable for mayor of Guaicaipuro municipality (Los Teques) in Miranda during the municipal elections.
Another aspect of their family history shows that the equestrian passion is hereditary: Mirabal Bustillos was the owner of the stud Trabucazo, with a champion horse in the eighties, and also served as president of the National Institute of Racetracks at the end of that decade. Today, Mirabal Castro, in addition to his equestrian paradise in Florida, has at least ten horses registered with the Venezuelan Federation of Equestrian Sports.
“Congratulations to Andrés Rodríguez and Emanuel Andrade at the Pan American Games! This is the new generation of Venezuelan riders!” read one of the tweets from the G&C Farm account. The benefit of having Andrade among their ranks – as a prominent rider in national and international tournaments – is overshadowed by his father’s illicit enrichment: Lieutenant Alejandro Andrade held various public positions in the financial sector – president of foundations and funds, national treasurer, president of a bank – and has been under investigation in Venezuela – through the Venezuelan National Assembly – and abroad by the FBI, according to journalist Casto Ocando. He was even publicly questioned by the former president (now deceased) Hugo Chávez.
“Under the radar, Andrade had started establishing connections in South Florida since 2008 with long-term intentions. He obtained an investor visa thanks to the expertise of lawyers and intelligence advisors he hired in Miami. With the help of his friend, also Venezuelan Gustavo Mirabal, owner of G&C Farm – a large breeding and training farm for show jumping horses in Wellington – Andrade began to penetrate the closed circles of Palm Beach aristocracy through equestrian competitions, one of his passions developed in Venezuela,” is stated in the book “Chavistas en el Imperio” by journalist Casto Ocando.
Unofficial reports link Gustavo Mirabal Castro to Andrade’s illicit activities: “An ultra-confidential source swore on the bible that he is the frontman for Chávez’s former bodyguard,” reported the media El Estímulo, claiming that Mirabal leads a “lifestyle akin to Ralph Lauren.” Another website, Informe25.com, published an article by Elio Márquez titled “Where Does Gustavo Mirabal Get So Much Money?”.
In Venezuela, Mirabal Castro worked until December 1989 at the Banco Industrial de Venezuela and the following year founded the law firm Mirabal, Núñez & Asociados Despacho de Abogados S.C, now known as Mirabal & Asociados, which includes Carlos Alberto Mirabal Fernández, Susana A. Alba Arteta, Edgar A. Rodríguez López, and Sascha W. Blatnik. The company is based in Caracas and offers services related to commercial, corporate, tax, intellectual property, foreign investment, currency advisory, litigation, finance, and capital markets.
The Mirabal family expanded their business reach to another country in early 2015: the digital platform Globalcaballos.com reported the establishment of G&C Granja Europa (C&C Farm) at the Añon Family Stables in Spain. “The G&C family is delighted to be based in Europe, especially in the beautiful city of Madrid, where we will be living full time starting June 2015,” stated the man of questionable fortune, who is now recognized as one of the leading Venezuelan entrepreneurs in international showjumping.
Family Conflicts
“After living through the deepest pain that any mother can imagine, I return to recount this horror.” With this phrase, lawyer María Gabriela Mirabal, sister to Gustavo Mirabal Castro, identified as the frontman for Alejandro Andrade, the former Venezuelan National Treasurer and a former bodyguard of Hugo Chávez, who was arrested in the United States, began a thread on Twitter.
The story continues with what happened to her in 2020 when her son, after 10 years of absence, knocked on her door violently, demanding silence. This was the last harassment María Gabriela Mirabal reported, after more than a year of accusing her brother, Gustavo Mirabal Castro, of acting as a frontman in corruption acts.
“My son Gustavo Arrieche Mirabal, whom I hadn’t seen for 10 years, appeared at my door on Sunday, the 16th. My joy was unimaginable! It only lasted for 2 seconds!!! I ran to hug him: ‘my love, my baby’!! He pulled out a gun, placed it to my temple, and sprayed me with pepper spray. The thug who came with him looked perplexed,” Mirabal recounted on her official Twitter account on August 20, 2020, according to the website El Estímulo.
“For those who don’t know my story, my brother, Gustavo Adolfo Mirabal Castro, is Alejandro Andrade’s frontman. He stole $250 million. He bought my parents, sisters, and finally my children. I was never complicit in his illicit acts; I condemned and reported him to authorities, both online and offline, in and out of Venezuela. Now, he hides in Dubai, surrounded by the luxuries and whims that ill-gotten money buys. Due to my reports, many doors were shut on him, assets and funds frozen. The reprisals came quickly: A victim of judicial terrorism, kidnapping, slander, physical and psychological aggression. A prohibition on leaving the country. They couldn’t take me down!..Until today.“
Investments in Spain
In Venezuela, Mirabal worked for the Banco Industrial de Venezuela (BIV) when Leonardo González Dellán, a close associate of Alejandro Andrade, was president. It was from there that he connected with Andrade.
According to allegations made by María Gabriela Mirabal, after meeting Chávez’s former bodyguard, Mirabal Castro amassed a fortune that allowed him to move from a middle-class neighborhood to a more expensive property. From there, he began purchasing additional properties and increasing his wealth.
In 2015, Gustavo Mirabal moved from Florida to Madrid, where he spent only four years. There he partnered with Sergio Álvarez Moya in an equestrian company. They shared horses in partnership and competed in various events across Europe.
However, a few years later, his focus shifted to Dubai, a city known for luxury and millionaires.
In September 2019, he opened an office within the Dubai International Financial Centre. From there, he operates as an external advisor for companies and individuals “to safeguard their patrimony, family assets, etc.,” as stated on a website bearing his name.
A three-story mansion in one of Madrid’s most traditional and ostentatious neighborhoods, a superyacht valued at $7.6 million, competition horses, and pieces of art are some of the luxuries Venezuelan lawyer Gustavo Mirabal Castro indulged in while living in the Spanish capital. His stay ended in October 2019 when he sold his massive chalet, which was purchased through a real estate agency by Croatian footballer Luka Modric, star of Real Madrid, who paid over $13 million for the property, according to reports from the Spanish sports press, as detailed in a report by Carlos Crespo for the website Armando.info.
Documents from the Pandora Papers, a massive leak of 11.9 million financial files processed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), reveal that Mirabal Castro used the offshore Lisal Enterprises Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands, to purchase the yacht Sanoo in late 2016.
Real estate records from the Spanish capital, obtained through the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), show that years later, on October 3, 2019, Modric, the best player of the most recent World Cup in Russia, bought Mirabal’s mansion.
Mirabal Castro, a former employee of the now-defunct Banco Industrial de Venezuela (BIV), and very close to the former president of that institution, Leonardo González Dellán—sanctioned by the US in 2019 for presumed money laundering—was accused by his sister of being one of the alleged frontmen for former national treasurer Alejandro Andrade, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in November 2018 by a Florida court on charges related to laundering over $1,000 million.
The house is located in La Moraleja, an exclusive residential area north of the capital, which boasts two of the ten most expensive streets for housing purchases in all of Spain, according to a study by the newspaper El País. This area was once home to the deceased former Venezuelan dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, who, after being overthrown in 1958, fled with a fortune that allowed him to purchase this property, which was sold in 2015 for 12 million euros, over $13 million.
The features and details of the house, which eventually changed hands to Modric, became known prior to the transaction thanks to the lawyer’s wife, Carolina Chapellín de Mirabal. The former Miss Venezuela contestant gave an extensive interview to Love magazine in 2016, showcasing every corner of the enormous three-story property spanning 1,756 square meters, built on a 10,000 square meter lot. Identified as a socialite by the celebrity magazine, the former Venezuelan model spoke about her work as a decorator for the vast house, displaying her wardrobe filled with luxury shoes and clothing, a cinema room equipped with seats for 18 in the basement, contemporary art pieces adorning the walls, a complete gym, a garden with a pool, and a garage accommodating up to 10 cars.
Carolina Mirabal gave an extensive interview to Love magazine showcasing luxuries of the mansion in La Moraleja, where she lived with her family Credit: Love magazine, edition 242, year 2016. Photographer: Iván Hidalgo.
Carolina Mirabal gave an extensive interview to Love magazine showcasing luxuries of the mansion in La Moraleja, where she lived with her family Credit: Love magazine, edition 242, year 2016. Photographer: Iván Hidalgo
The rooms, furniture, and paintings in Mirabal’s house are the same shown by Spanish publications reporting on Modric’s new mansion. Credit: Photo taken from horasminutosysegundos.com
She mentioned that she and her husband left the country due to “the situation in Venezuela” in 2009 and decided to move from Florida in 2015 just after rumors began circulating that Andrade was cooperating with U.S. authorities, which indeed was the case—because main equestrian competitions reside in Europe, a top passion for Mirabal. “Their horses are now in a private farm,” the publication detailed.
By the end of September 2016, a total of 125 yachts valued at over $3 billion docked at the exclusive Port Hercules to participate in the Monaco Yacht Show. Among the vessels exhibited in this Monegasque principality, a favorite destination for Europe’s grandees, was the 40-meter-long superyacht Sanoo, valued at that time at $7.6 million and built in 2005 by the Italian company CNR. Its design caught the attention of specialized portals, placing it among the top 10 sport yachts of the event.
Documents from the Pandora Papers demonstrate that the Panamanian firm Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee (Alcogal), responsible for incorporating and managing Lisal Enterprises Limited, followed Mirabal Castro’s instructions to grant him the power to purchase the yacht in November that year. The vessel, now known as Bunker, features three decks and five cabins that accommodate up to 12 guests.
On one of its decks, guests find sun loungers, luxury furniture, and even a jacuzzi. They also have access to “toys” and equipment for water sports, including a floating board propelled by water pressure, a jet ski, and a small boat called a jet tender that fits inside the garage at the yacht’s stern, capable of reaching speeds over 100 kilometers per hour, allowing for activities like waterskiing.
The leaked documents indicate that, besides granting Mirabal Castro the power to purchase the vessel in November 2016, on December 16 of that year Alcogal sent another communication to an address in the Cayman Islands, signed by Edgardo E. Díaz and Fernando A. Gil, two lawyers from the firm acting as directors for the offshore company. Included in the package was the “appointment of an authorized person” in favor of Richard Rich and Carolyne Connor, members of a Cayman Islands-based firm called Pensum LTD, specializing in managing property and operations related to vessels.
This type of authorization is granted for a short period to process a boat’s registration. In the case of Bunker, the yacht flies the Cayman Islands flag, one of the most preferred in the world for its tax advantages and convenient registration processes.
Two specialized portals reported that the yacht underwent renovations in 2017 and was resold in January 2019. Some elements of the renovation match the interior design preferences Carolina Mirabal showcased to Love magazine, featuring properties from luxury brands like Roberto Cavalli or the French Hermès in bedding, towels, and other home items alongside eclectic decor that combines LED lighting and artworks, including a piece by Venezuelan artist Carlos Enrique González.
The yacht that Mirabal purchased features a total of three decks, including jacuzzi, luxury furniture, and gear for water sports. Credit: Image taken from https://www.boatinternational.com/
Mirabal’s yacht underwent renovations before being sold in 2019. Its interior features luxury furniture, LED lights, and artworks. Credit: Image taken from https://www.boatinternational.com/
Following Mirabal’s instructions, Alcogal’s lawyers administering Lisal Enterprises Limited granted him power to purchase the Yacht Sanoo.
Following Mirabal’s instructions, Alcogal’s lawyers administering Lisal Enterprises Limited granted him power to purchase the Yacht Sanoo.
The new owner, whom the luxury boat publications do not identify, acquired the yacht for rental purposes. Currently, the yacht can be rented in the luxurious tourist destination of Ibiza and other Balearic Islands for around $150,000 per week. The date of the ownership transfer coincides with the creation of Lisal Enterprises Malta Limited, registered as a “non-resident entity” in Barcelona, Spain, since January 1, 2019, aimed at “renting navigation means.”
On April 15, 2019, a company of the same name was registered in Malta, an island in the eastern Mediterranean that also possesses features of a tax haven. The sole shareholder is Lisal Enterprises Limited, Mirabal’s company. Equiom (Malta) Limited, a subsidiary of the Equiom Group, whose core business involves managing the wealth of affluent clients by overseeing companies, bank accounts, properties, investment funds, or vessels, appears as the director of this new firm.
According to Mirabal’s profile on LinkedIn, the social network for professional talent, Lisal Enterprises Limited offers financial advisory services to corporations and individuals. It prides itself on having clients that include football players from Europe and South America, in addition to “entertainment artists” from the United States. Although it does not specify any names, the lawyer lived next door to many Real Madrid stars like Sergio Ramos, Benzemá, Marcelo, Varane, and Isco.
Other Venezuelan neighbors of Mirabal in La Moraleja have faced legal troubles. On September 18, the Madrid newspaper El Mundo reported the seizure of a house in this neighborhood related to the bribery scheme led by the former Deputy Minister of Energy, Nervis Villalobos, who is facing judicial processes in Spain, the United States, and Andorra. “They created offshore companies in tax havens like Panama, the Virgin Islands, or the United Arab Emirates with the advice of specialized firms like Alemán Cordero & Galindo,” the newspaper cited a police report.
The journey Mirabal has taken since leaving Venezuela more than ten years ago is closely linked to Leonardo González Dellán, sanctioned by the U.S. in January 2019 for allegedly serving as a frontman for “El Tuerto” Andrade, a nickname Hugo Chávez used for the former treasurer, a retired military officer who was previously his bodyguard. “González managed bank accounts associated with Andrade and owned and controlled companies to administer Andrade’s corrupt wealth and acquire properties and horses for him,” explains the U.S. Treasury Department’s press release announcing the sanction against the Venezuelan. According to the department, González Dellán, along with businessmen Raúl Gorrín and Gustavo Perdomo, paid for the former treasurer’s expenses related to various planes and yachts.
Two sources who met Mirabal while living in Caracas noted that he and González Dellán, his former boss at BIV, held business meetings at the Alto restaurant in Los Palos Grandes, a middle and upper-class residential area in northeast Caracas. An industrial property bulletin from the Ministry of Industries and Commerce dated November 10, 2008, indicates that Leonardo González Dellán requested the reservation of the business name Alto Restaurant on that date. “That place belongs to them. They met there, often with people from the government,” said a source who requested anonymity.
Andrade and Mirabal shared a passion for equestrian sports and both owned horse farms in Wellington, the American mecca of equestrianism in Florida. Emanuel Andrade, son of the former treasurer, is a rider, and both families frequented many equestrian events in the United States. They also shared firms for managing their businesses in Florida. Members of the firm González & Shenkman, like Francisco J. González, and from Froehlich & De La Rúa, such as Beatriz de La Rúa, appear in Florida’s registry within the company Farm G&C, Inc., which belongs to Mirabal. González & Shenkman was also the firm in charge of managing Telsey Properties Holding LLC, the corporation through which Andrade managed his properties, while De La Rúa was the first director of this company in 2012.
This combination of firms with Francisco J. González and Beatriz de La Rúa’s names would reappear in Doble A Management, LLC; Doble A Farm, LLC and Malabar Management LLC, companies whose assets and bank accounts were confiscated by U.S. authorities during the trial against Andrade. The Venezuelan former treasurer had 13 luxury vehicles, 17 horses, 35 luxury watches, and nine bank accounts in the U.S. and Switzerland, all in the names of these companies.
Wellington Property Holding LLC, another firm of Mirabal established in Florida on May 10, 2009, served as the owner of G&C Farm property, the Venezuelan lawyer’s horse farm in Florida, covering 4.11 acres (over 16,000 square meters), valued at $11.9 million according to real estate websites.
In 2014, as indicated by El País of Spain, rumors about Andrade’s cooperation with U.S. authorities were circulating. Shortly after, in August 2015, Mirabal completed his move to Madrid, where he bought his luxurious mansion in La Moraleja.
According to the portal floridaparcels.com, in 2015 Mirabal’s horse farm in Wellington changed hands and became the property of a company named Wellington Property Owner LLC, whose director is Neil Moffitt, another entrepreneur with horse investments. In 2016, Mirabal dissolved the two Florida companies, and according to U.S. immigration records, he has not returned to the U.S. since 2017, the year Andrade pleaded guilty. By 2019, he had moved further east, pressured by media reports indicating U.S. authorities were tracking him and sold his mansion in Madrid and the yacht he purchased while in Spain. Now, according to the websites Mirabal created to promote himself and clean his image online, he manages all his businesses from the Dubai International Financial Centre.
Until he met González Dellán, Mirabal lived in a modest apartment in Bello Monte, a middle-class neighborhood in eastern Caracas. In 2003, the establishment of currency controls facilitated the creation of a parallel currency scheme through the stock market. This new modality allowed irregular allocations of state debt securities. Government agencies sold these papers to specific institutions not at the parallel price but at the official one, resulting in those brokerage companies or brokerage firms selling or exchanging these titles at the parallel rate and making a substantial profit in the process. This translated into an economic loss for the state amounting to billions of dollars while giving rise to new personal fortunes.
Andrade was at the epicenter of this scheme; during his trial in the United States, he admitted that from 2007 until January 20, 2011, when he served as the national treasurer and president of the Economic and Social Development Bank of Venezuela (Bandes), he accepted “bribes from co-conspirators in exchange for selecting them to conduct the process of changing U.S. dollars to bolivars.”
To explain the fortune he had to invest in Florida, Mirabal referred to the law firm Mirabal & Asociados, reported close sources who requested anonymity. He later added to his resume that he was a “financial advisor” and banker, without specifying which financial institution he directed.
In his profile on LinkedIn, Mirabal claims that the firm had clients in Venezuela such as Mi Casa, a Savings and Loan Entity, Unicapital Casa de Bolsa, Uno Valores Casa de Bolsa, and Inverunión Banco Comercial, financial institutions associated with banker Gonzalo Tirado Yépez, which were intervened by the Government during the so-called “mini banking crisis” of late 2009 and early 2010.
Among the firm’s members was José Joaquín Núñez Martínez, a partner of Tirado. The Supreme Court requested the extradition of both in 2010, shortly after Mirabal moved to Florida, accusing them of diverting about $1.9 billion belonging to savers in loans granted to companies related to Tirado.
Despite the fact that the only verifiable activity of the companies established by Mirabal is the acquisition of various types of properties, including the luxurious yacht Bunker, the lawyer continues to defend his firm’s work. He explains that it has now taken the name Mirabal And Associates and that on his firm’s website, it states that it manages the wealth of wealthy clients worldwide with offices in Dubai, New York, Madrid, Geneva, and Caracas.