The banker of Gorrín, Matthias Krull, a ninth accused separately in relation to the Miami case, pleaded guilty to a charge of money laundering conspiracy and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Krull has cooperated extensively with prosecutors and Homeland Security investigators.
Source: El CARABOBEÑO
An investment manager in Miami pleaded guilty to participating in a $1.2 billion money laundering network led by wealthy Venezuelan businessmen with political connections to Nicolás Maduro’s regime, as reported by the Miami Herald.
Gustavo Hernández Frieri, 45, was found guilty of a single count of money laundering conspiracy and now faces less than 10 years in prison at his sentencing on March 20 before federal district judge Kathleen Williams in federal court in Miami.
Born in Colombia, Hernández is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was arrested last year during a family vacation in Italy before being extradited to Miami to face the massive money laundering case. An indictment accused him alongside seven other individuals, most of whom are still fugitives.
The indictment targeted elite Venezuelan businessmen paying bribes to government officials to obtain loans from Pdvsa that generated astronomical profits after being funneled through a favorable currency exchange system.
Hernández is accused of helping launder at least $12 million that, according to prosecutors, was paid in bribes to a former high-ranking Pdvsa official who wanted to move money to Miami and other parts of the United States. Hernández’s role was to place that money in a fake mutual fund to make it appear legitimate and then launder it in U.S. banks for a fee.
The accused operated an investment business on Brickell Avenue, remaining free on a $25 million bond co-signed by his brother, César Hernández Frieri, and his brother-in-law, Juan Carlos Gómez, who are in the same business. They helped Hernández establish two investment firms: Global Securities Holdings and Global Strategic Investments. Gustavo Hernández also had to deposit a bond of $1.5 million, requiring him to make a 10% down payment.
Hernández got into trouble when he was approached by a Venezuelan lawyer turned money launderer, who became a confidential source for Homeland Security Investigations in 2016. The source arranged with Hernández to help conceal bribe payments made to Pdvsa official Abraham Edgardo Ortega.
Ortega, the former CEO of financial planning at Pdvsa, pleaded guilty in October 2018 to accepting millions of dollars in bribes that were secretly sent to U.S. and other financial institutions with Hernández’s help and others.
In exchange, Ortega allowed members of the ring to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from Pdvsa through loan and currency exchange schemes that ended up in European, Caribbean, and U.S. banks, as well as luxury real estate and other investments in South Florida.
Ortega, who worked at Pdvsa for over a decade, admitted to using his official role to grant “priority” status to Venezuelan companies doing business with the government so they could leverage their enormous oil revenues to make fortunes overnight. Ortega’s sentencing has been delayed as he cooperates with federal authorities.
Some of the so-called Venezuelan kleptocrats accused in the indictment have connections to Maduro, who is under suspicion in the ongoing investigation, according to federal law enforcement sources familiar with the case. Maduro’s three stepchildren are also under investigation, along with the rich Caracas television mogul, Raúl Gorrín.
The banker of Gorrín, Matthias Krull, a ninth accused separately in the Miami case, pleaded guilty to a charge of money laundering conspiracy and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Krull has cooperated extensively with prosecutors and Homeland Security investigators. He is expected to receive a sentence reduction and will turn himself over to prison authorities next year.
Krull, a Swiss banker based in Panama who provided banking services to Gorrín and other wealthy Venezuelans, was utilized to move $600 million in stolen Venezuelan funds from a European bank to the United States for the benefit of Maduro’s three stepchildren, Gorrín, and others involved in the scheme.
U.S. authorities say the stolen funds were funneled through the Venezuelan government’s currency exchange to increase their value before being transferred to Portmann Capital Management in Malta. Some of those embezzled funds eventually were invested in luxury real estate and other assets in the Miami area.
In a separate federal case in South Florida, Gorrín was charged last year with conspiring with former Venezuelan national treasurer Alejandro Andrade to embezzle over a billion dollars from the government. Andrade pleaded guilty to a charge of money laundering conspiracy and was sentenced last November to 10 years in prison.
Andrade has aided the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations in building the case against Gorrín, who also had ties to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.
Tags: Department of Justice, money laundering, Raul Gorrin