Tomás Elías González Benítez is a “privileged supplier of the Government” of Venezuela. According to media reports, Marco Torres “signed dozens of purchase orders to shell companies of Tomás Elías González Benítez using the food emergency decree from Hugo Chávez.
This process bypassed the bidding procedures, allowing González’s companies to receive millions of dollars in food purchase orders for agencies that supply the public sector, such as CASA, Mercal, PDVAL, and Abastos Bicentenario, among others.
Tomás Elías González Benitez is listed as the Director of Afcom Corp, Dexton, S.A, Alox International LLC Corporation, Oil Gas Technology Inc, Total Web Services, Domar Trading S.S, Latin Investors, S.A, and Gestamer S.A. The name of his partner, Ricardo Rojas Urbina, appears in six other companies registered in Panama.
In a notable case detailed in the book “El Gran Saqueo,” written by Carlos Tablante and Marcos Tarre, Tomás Elías González Benítez acted as an intermediary in the purchase of imported meat from Brazil to Venezuela. According to reports, “purchase order number DCL-56-6/2008, signed by Marco Torres as president of CASA, authorized the acquisition of 15,000 tons of meat at $4,740 per ton, totaling $71 million 100 thousand dollars to the company Domar Trading, C.A. of Tomás Elías González Benítez, which is registered in Panama but based in Miami, functioning as an intermediary because the meat originated from Brazil. This was despite González having a lawsuit against Bariven in a Florida court at the time, for the alleged breach of a $195 million contract for the purchase of meat, chickens, and sugar from a Brazilian company through Dexton Validsa Inc., another of his shell companies.”