By: El Pitazo Investigative Unit
Source: El Pitazo
The lawyer from Maracaibo, co-owner of Cresmoca, is accused by the former Sebin chief Manuel Cristopher Figuera of being part of the gold looting scheme in Venezuela. A former partner also places him within the gold business structure. In 2017, he invited Nicolás Maduro Guerra to a party in Maracaibo, where a woman was detained for taking a photo of Nicolasito.
If it weren’t for that woman who dared to take a picture of Nicolás Maduro Guerra at the Creole Club in Maracaibo, the relationship between the son of the Miraflores tenant and builder Santiago Morón would still be cloaked in secrecy, reserved for the circles of the mining exploitation.
The first sighting of the two together was two years ago, in 2017. As reported by El Pitazo at the time, Maduro Guerra attended the first communion of María José Morón Hernández’s son, Santiago and Ricardo Morón Hernández’s younger sister.
This social event did not go unnoticed: a woman was approached by the National Intelligence Service (Sebin) to force her to delete the photograph she took with her phone of Nicolás Maduro’s son. This woman was Rita Morales, who, along with her husband, was detained days later at La Chinita airport in San Francisco, Maracaibo, while they were about to board a flight to Aruba. They were taken to the political police headquarters El Helicoide in Caracas. The photograph had gone viral through WhatsApp groups in Maracaibo, leading to their detention.
Nicolás Maduro Guerra, more commonly known as Nicolasito to differentiate him from his father, does not generate headlines for his speeches in the National Constituent Assembly. He’s gained his own notoriety since being linked to the gold commercialization scheme in Venezuela, leveraging his status as the President’s son.
The person accusing Nicolasito of involvement in this business is Manuel Cristopher Figuera, the former head of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (Sebin), who is currently in the United States exposing the corruption plots of Nicolás Maduro’s government. Figuera has gone the furthest in calling out the mining and gold business. He accused Nicolasito of leading the looting of gold from the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) and managing companies linked to the mines. Alongside him is his trusted right-hand man: Santiago José Morón Hernández.
A Family That Builds Together
The Morón family is originally from Maracaibo, Zulia state. Santiago Morón Hernández is a lawyer, and his brother Ricardo is a civil engineer and also works as a stockbroker, according to records from the National Superintendency of Securities (Sunaval). No one in Maracaibo is willing to talk about the Morón family.
Ricardo Morón, the father, and his sons Santiago and Ricardo are listed as founders and directors of the construction company Cresmo C.A., registered with the Commercial Registry of the First Judicial Circumscription of the Federal District and Miranda State in March 1987.
Cresmo, registered in the National Contractors Registry (RNC), has had projects executed for Fondur, Metro de Maracaibo, and Ducolsa since 2007. For Metro de Maracaibo, they built the Villa Metro Guayabal, Villa Paraíso, Villa Urdaneta neighborhoods, and rehabilitated the Sabaneta Corridor of the Metro.
The Poor Image of the Family Business
Metro de Maracaibo is one of the favorite clients of the Morón family company. Cresmo built works for the underground system. However, Cresmo has faced allegations of contract breaches.
In mid-2011, a complaint from Assembly member Julio Montoya appeared in the newspaper Versión Final, indicating that Cresmo would construct 12 buildings as part of the Villa Metro Guayabal residential project, of which only 10 unfinished buildings were delivered. Montoya claimed that the contract stated elevators would be installed, but that was not the case, nor did they have the required public services.
Despite this history of contract breaches, this Morón family-run company was awarded another significant project not listed in the RNC database: the facility for Judicially Processed Detainees in Zulia state (Crppjez).
According to a report published by Transparencia Venezuela with support from the Zulia State Human Rights Center (Cdhez) and the Venezuelan Prison Observatory, the Minister of Prisons, Iris Varela, announced in 2012 the construction of 24 penitentiaries in response to overcrowding. However, that promise remained unfulfilled, just like this detention center in Maracaibo.
For this project, a budget of Bs.130.660.866,54 ($20.7 million at the time) was agreed upon with the Morón Hernández company without bidding, for the construction of the detention center. Construction began in 2013, and according to Minister Iris Varela, it was supposed to be completed by the end of the year. However, by December, the facility was not ready, and a second payment of $12.4 million was made to Cresmo.
In February 2015, according to a note in Panorama, Ricardo Morón Hernández announced that the construction would be completed by November that year.
“We work from seven in the morning until there’s no exit time. It’s an important project that we’re pushing forward. We have the responsibility to deliver something quality, and we must meet the deadline,” Ricardo Morón said at that time.
The construction was abandoned in August 2015, with 70% of the progress in ruins. They blamed the neighbors where the facility was supposedly located, in the municipality of San Francisco, Zulia state. Sanitary rooms and steel beams were stolen. Walls were torn down with sledgehammers, leaving only ruins in the aftermath.
The steel materials were brought to Venezuela in mid-2015 by a Colombian company, Steckerl Aceros Sociedad por Acciones Simplificada. It was 17.5 tons of steel for a price of $14,992 for the construction of the detention center.
Cresmo not only left the construction of the penitentiary unfinished but also failed to pay its workers. The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) database shows that the Morón family’s construction company has faced at least seven lawsuits for irregularities in social benefits payments. In all rulings, they were compelled to pay what their workers claimed.
The Brother’s Company in Panama
Santiago Moron
In 2013, according to the Open Corporates portal, Ricardo Morón, Santiago’s brother, registered the company José Valeri Homs S.A. in Panama. El Pitazo could not determine what this organization was dedicated to.
In Panama, a resolution from March 2019 listed 6,980 companies that have been overdue on a single tax for three consecutive years. Among them is Ricardo Morón’s company. Such a warning implies a suspension of the corporate rights of the legal entity.
Despite being active for only six years and not having any major contracts, Ricardo Morón seems to have fared well financially. A year and a half ago, he purchased an apartment on San Felipe Street of La Castellana, a high-class urbanization in eastern Caracas, valued at approximately $1.5 million. This area is known for being a significant financial, commercial, and residential hub.
Nicolasito’s and his personal assistant Santiago Morón’s businesses were mentioned by General Cristopher Figuera upon his arrival in the U.S. In revelations made to the Washington Post, Figuera claimed there is a criminal enterprise in Venezuela led by Nicolás Maduro Moros, involving his own family.
“They had established a monopoly by purchasing gold through the Mining Arc in the south of the country at bargain prices, later reselling it at inflated prices from the BCV as their operations center.”
Figuera also accused Tareck El Aissami; Calixto Ortega, president of the Central Bank of Venezuela; Simón Zerpa, finance minister; and Santiago Morón of engaging in illegal gold trading.
According to a report published by Medium, this gold business scheme dates back to 2016 when the Orinoco Mining Arc project began, where lesser-known companies like Faoz Corp benefited from the agreement with the government.
Faoz Corp would eventually evolve into two joint companies: Ecosocialist Mining Parguaza (Emmepsa) and the Joint Mining Company of Nueva Esparta (Ecomine). In a televised transmission, attorney Félix Ángel Oliveros Alcalá appears signing on behalf of Ecomine. Oliveros was integrated into the mining project as the designer responsible for creating both joint companies in charge of gold and coltan. However, that partnership between Oliveros and the government would be short-lived.
Santiago Morón entered the scene alongside Alejandro Batraki, Alberto Romero, and Jonel Ortiz, who took over Emmepsa, citing irregularities in coltan exploitation. Morón accused Félix Oliveros of providing false coltan figures, labeling him as a “State scammer.” This accusation led to Oliveros being stripped of the company and all its documents.
In the same report, Oliveros revealed that he was imprisoned for 45 days in Dgcim’s cells and forced to sign over all negotiation data, market information, and client details of both joint companies. Later, Emmepsa and Ecomine became the center of the gold business.
Oliveros, who currently resides in Spain, disclosed that since 2018, the Morón brothers Santiago and Ricardo have been managing Emmepsa from the Taeca Tower in Caracas, belonging to their family business Cresmo. The Morón family also operates from the Galipán Center, where they handle bookkeeping and direct shipments.
Additionally, he stated that the operational side of international business is managed by Ricardo with a direct link through Alex Saab, a man whom Figuera also mentions as part of that boliburguesía international, very close to the presidential family.
El Pitazo contacted both buildings where the Moróns have their offices. A letter was left seeking their version, but no response was received by the time of publication.
In Maracaibo, people are reluctant to discuss the Moróns out of fear of reprisals. This holds true in the United States as well, but for different reasons. An official source from the United States told El Pitazo that they cannot comment on the Moróns.
Santiago and Nicolasito are rarely seen together in public. They seem to avoid the cameras when sharing the same personal space. They have only been photographed together once, at the Miraflores Palace. The shot shows a smiling Nicolasito, with Santiago Morón slightly in the background, appearing almost like a bodyguard, the favored friend.
AN OFFICIAL SOURCE FROM THE UNITED STATES TOLD EL PITAZO THAT THEY CANNOT COMMENT ON THE MORÓN
Tags: BCV, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, Santiago Moron, SEBIN