A recent proposal for restructuring PDVSA to return to its core business has been circulating. It involves the cessation of food imports, poultry feeding, and cardboard housing construction, alongside modifications to laws aimed at attracting foreign investment and allowing PDVSA to become a minority partner. The plan also seeks to recover refineries, increase production, and reduce taxes and royalties. Factors such as U.S. sanctions, an oversupply of oil globally, and the impact of the China virus seem to have prompted this movement, which, it must be said, is and has been the only viable solution. The issue is that the global economy is stagnant, and the demand for oil will continue hitting historic lows for the foreseeable future, similarly affecting energy prices. Thus, the decision by Chavismo to sweeten the pill for potential partners arrives too late. However, there’s an interesting development in this proposal: the establishment of a new PDVSA Rusia S.A., which will acquire PDVSA’s stakes in Nynas Petroleum and APS SpA. Apologies, but APS, who?
We like to keep track of everything related to corruption here, and since PDVSA is both the main cash generator and the largest source of acquisitions in Venezuela, we map its subsidiaries and operations as much as possible. Recently, we published about Nynas’s own debacle.
It turns out that PDVSA holds an unofficial 49.95% stake in an Italian company called APS SpA. This partnership was reportedly established in 2015. However, checks on the acquisition of shares in APS, through PDVSA’s books, reports, and audited financial statements, yield no results. Zero. Niente. So, how did this partnership come about, who initiated it, and what profits (if any) have been produced since then?
Enter Rafael Ramírez, the architect of PDVSA’s destruction. Ramírez has a brother-in-law named Baldo Sanso. This Sanso character was Ramírez’s favorite unofficial negotiator during his reign as CEO of PDVSA and Minister of Energy in Venezuela. According to the book “Comandante” by The Guardian journalist Rory Carroll, Sanso was the go-to man for companies seeking energy deals in Venezuela. Fees were to be paid before requests were submitted, of course, and Sanso bragged about the impressive $2 million that international firms would pay “just to meet him.”
Fast forward a few years. Ramírez is dethroned by Nicolás Maduro and goes from being the all-powerful CEO/Energy Minister of PDVSA to, um, owning a pizzeria near Rome and making videos that are watched by three people. Meanwhile, his star advisor, while pretending to be a financial prodigy who broke into China, is now draining €250,000 through transfers funding where the $2 million payments piled up, maintaining lifestyles not only for Ramírez and his wife Beatrice, but also for mom Hildegard Rondon de Sanso, ex-wife Marjorie, and son… A whole lot of unemployed known individuals living large in Europe is quite an expensive undertaking.
From our network of sources, we learned that Sanso established some sort of strategic partnership between PDVSA and APS SpA, maintaining regular contact. While no official records have been found, further investigations revealed that PDVSA did acquire 49.95% in APS but later defaulted on an agreement. On its website, APS claims to have partnered with PDVSA in 2015 and changed its name. It appears to have engineering projects in various countries. Here’s a bit of background before the rebranding. More on PDVSA’s operations/partnerships in Europe (excluding APS) can be found here.
Analyzing the management and board of APS provides more clues on how to connect to Ramírez’s network.
There’s Iván Antonio Orellana Alcalá, former Chargé d’Affaires of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum of Venezuela during Ramírez’s absences due to foreign trips. Most recently, Orellana Alcalá was appointed Coordinator of PetroCaribe.
Then there’s Iván José Parra Tepedino, a former executive of PDVSA and CITGO.
Jesús Rafael Serrano Mata, another former PDVSA official.
Ygor Gastón Martínez Acurero, former head of PDVSA Argentina S.A.
And then, there’s Humberto José Perniciaro Díaz, former legal advisor to PDVSA, who coincidentally collaborates and co-authors books on joint ventures within the context of the Hydrocarbons Law of Venezuela with none other than Hildegard Rondón de Sanso: Ramírez’s mother-in-law, co-legal advisor for PDVSA together with Ramírez’s wife, Beatrice, and mother of Baldo Sanso.