Shell companies, or paper companies, are businesses typically established to launder money. These are various corporations created under the law, but their main purpose is to hide and cover up the actual economic activities that generate income for their owners and third parties, such as partners. Even if the money and profits come from illegal activities like drug trafficking, arms smuggling, human trafficking, bribery, and corruption.
These activities generate enormous profits in illegal funds for those involved in such promotions. To utilize the resources obtained, they often resort to various methods and techniques of money laundering, thus allowing them to demonstrate that their income and capital are legitimate, as noted in a report from InformeSinFronteras.com.
As a result, in the vast majority of cases, these types of companies are considered fraudulent, as they do not adhere to the commercial or economic activities for which they are supposedly created. In other words, they engage in actions that diverge from the activities declared in their constitution, such as money laundering and related crimes.
For all these reasons, shell companies affect entire countries and societies by supporting and concealing criminal activities that undermine the economic and social order.
Characteristics of shell companies:
Shell companies can be identified and recognized because:
· Their source of capital as a corporate entity is unclear.
· Multiple companies are created with different economic activities, comprised of natural persons.
· They provide false information, including details required by their constitution (phones, addresses, locations, etc.).
· They manage large cash flows, with most payments and transactions conducted this way.
· They have very common names that generate many divergent results when searching online.
· They conduct business that does not match their financial capacities and image.
· The results of their reports significantly differ from those of other companies in the same industry performing similar activities.
· They are created within a short timeframe.
All of this is well known by a criminal organization involving numerous individuals, both inside and outside Margarita, including Samir Makiad Alfalah (Maklad) and Faisal Fakik Kadri (Fakih). The team from InformeSinFronteras.com assigned to this investigation continues to reveal the information collected during their visit to Venezuela.
Faisal Fakih Kadri was born in Colombia. He is the president of the Digitec Group and CEO of the Family Market shopping center located on Aldonza Manrique Ave in Playa El Ángel.
It is publicly known that the aforementioned gentlemen also own the Rio Supermarket chain, for which they generated the following group of firms in the United States: Grupo Rio LLC, Rio Group Services LLC, and Rio Group Enterprise LLC.
RIO Group Services LLC – Source: https://opencorporates.com/
Grupo Rio LLC
According to its registration, it is located at 4252 SW 186TH AVE, MIRAMAR, Florida, USA. Interestingly, the company’s address does not lead to a commercial building as is common in the country, but rather to an upscale residence in Sunset Lakes, a prestigious gated community in Central Florida.
In this company, the 21-year-old heir Raed Alfalah Maklad appears as the director, who is studying at Miami Dade College (Florida, USA).
Rio Group Services LLC and Rio Group Enterprise LLC
The registered address is 6305 NW 99TH AVE, DORAL, Florida, USA. This address corresponds to a corner near an industrial warehouse area, where no office belonging to Grupo Rio was found.
Raed Alfalah Maklad and Mr. Mauricio Emilio Acevedo Marchena, a Colombian from Bogotá who also has Venezuelan nationality and previously served as the general director of the Legislative Council of Nueva Esparta, appear as directors of these firms. He has a criminal record for fraud and simulation of a punishable act.
His brother is Nelson Rene Acevedo Marchena, a social leader and current councilman of the Arismendi Municipality in Nueva Esparta.
We mention more companies from the group registered in the U.S.:
All Engine Oils LLC
In this firm, the address 6305 NW 99TH AVE, DORAL, Florida, USA appears again, and the directors are Mauricio Emilio Acevedo Marchena along with Janoara Carmen Figueroa Rodriguez (Janohara), a graduate lawyer from Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho University (UGMA), who currently serves as the deputy director at the Autonomous Socialist Institute of Ports of the Bolivarian State of Nueva Esparta (I.A.S.P.E.B.N.E).
Grandstream Solution Inc.
The address corresponds to a multi-use building located at 4990 SW 72ND AVE, MIAMI, Florida, USA. Faisal Fakih Kadri and Mauricio Emilio Acevedo Marchena are listed as directors.
Other companies linked to the group in Venezuela include Desarrollos Turísticos AAA, C.A. and Desarrollos Inmobiliarios 2018, through which they were involved in illegal land purchases on Margarita Island, with the participation of alleged opponents of the Venezuelan regime. There are several records linking Mauricio Emilio Acevedo Marchena to these purchases. This fraudulent land-buying method was also applied in the city of Valencia by Hosam Fakih Kadri (Hasam) and Talal Fakih Kadri (Talel).
At the intersection of Av. Circunvalación Nte. with Av. 4 de mayo in Porlamar, next to the DIGITEC building, a shopping center called World Trade Center Porlamar is under construction. On the website of the World Trade Centers Association, Talal Fakih Kadri is listed as the contact person for this headquarters, who is also the owner of Invertropoli, a wholesaler of tires, rims, and inner tubes (butts). He received $41.4 million through Cadivi between 2004-2011. This company represents brands like Armoor, Federal, Metrollantas, Triangle, Advance, and Kumho in Venezuela, catering to both freight transport and individuals. Additionally, Talal Fakih Kadri had a total of 13 more companies registered under his name, which would violate according to Venezuelan laws Article 113 of the Organic Customs Law, which addresses monopoly. Furthermore, he received $19.3 million in the twelfth auction of Sicad I in May 2014.
Metro Cubico Urbano Construction company, with locations in Venezuela and Colombia, handles most of the group’s constructions, including those of RIO Supermarket, Family Market, World Trade Center Porlamar, elevator renovations in Grupo Alfalah’s offices, among others. This construction company is closely associated with projects with Nogarq Arquitectura (Nogarq Noriega & Garcia Associates).
The company ABISMO C.A. (Venezuela), used for the distribution, export, import, and re-export of goods in general under the Free Port regime of Margarita Island, also lists Ahmed Fakin Hacheemm as a partner. The latter has records for tax violations with the National Integrated Service of Customs and Tax Administration (SENIAT). As a result of this investigation, part of his company called OCEANNIC C.A. was seized.
The last company we will mention in this report is GTtronic, operating in Punto Fijo and Margarita, which distributes refrigerators and air conditioners to Venezuela, Panama, and Miami (USA).
They Do the Dirty Work
The main leaders of this organization know how to protect themselves and maintain distance from the dirty work. To do this, they establish connections with seasoned criminals who operate entirely with the approval and protection of significant political and police figures. Additionally, they hire the right people so that their smuggling operations run smoothly.
The primary figureheads of the organization responsible for the reception and distribution of narcotics are criminals with extensive criminal backgrounds, with the main one being Johnny Alexander Silva Rodriguez, known as Yostin, Jostin, Yosmel, or Yostin la Asunción. He is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder of Teófilo Cazorla Rodríguez, who went by the nickname Conejo, and his brother Wilfredo Antonio Cazorla. Eddy José Silva, known as Panqueca, who is a member of Yostin’s gang, was arrested for these actions. Following the murders of these brothers, Yostin became the most powerful pran in Margarita, taking control over all criminal movements on the island.
Yostin Pran Margarita
Other significant members of the group are identified by aliases such as Marquito Guamache and Vicmar, who pilot the speedboats loaded with drugs. Vicmar was involved in the San Juan de las Galdonas Massacre; the story began with a criminal gang in the area led by Malony, who stole a boat from Vicmar laden with millions of dollars in cash obtained from cocaine sales. After this theft, a simultaneous operation was carried out in San Juan de Unare, Cerro El Humo, and San Juan de las Galdonas, where Malony and his gang were taken down.
Although the group has total control over everything needed at the ports to load containers heading to Europe and the Caribbean, as well as to load illegal flights coming and going, most of the drugs cross the Caribbean in speedboats.
The primary route used by drug boats is through a series of islands along the Caribbean Archipelago. Venezuela is 834 kilometers from Trinidad and Tobago, with several nearby islands all the way to Cuba, such as Grenada, Martinique, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. They then reach larger islands starting with Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, home to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and finally Jamaica and Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean. They generally first send a fishing vessel as a decoy to alert them of any dangers they observe in the surrounding area. Detecting these boats in the Caribbean is not easy; the boats usually travel at high speeds at night, and when the sun rises, they are covered with a barely visible blue-green tarp and continue their journey at dusk. As they approach the different islands, they meet local smugglers at sea who transfer their cargo. Most of the crew from Venezuela returns to the South American continent, and the process is repeated.
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