It has become a certainty that whenever a massive leak of documents about corruption is announced, Venezuela will be at the forefront. This has happened in every previous international scandal, whether it be the #PanamaPapers, the #ParadisePapers, or the earlier leak originating from Switzerland (#SwissLeaks) concerning HSBC, where Venezuela ranked third in terms of deposited funds. Chavista corruption is in the big leagues, placing the country in a prominent position regarding organized crime worldwide. In this new episode focusing on Credit Suisse, we find that the number of Venezuelan account holders exceeds that of other involved countries.
Journalists from Armando.info and Efecto Cocuyo will reveal through a series of articles related to the internal document leak from Credit Suisse how habitual corrupt individuals utilized this bank to launder ill-gotten gains. However, to be truthful, Credit Suisse’s issue is not just that it facilitated the legitimization of capital generated by corruption and drug trafficking, as nearly all Swiss banks operate under the same business model. The only mistake of Credit Suisse, similar to HSBC previously, has been allowing the leak of documents that clearly show that anything goes when it comes to attracting clients and their illicit funds.
Swiss banking is the largest center for laundering illicit money in the world. It is estimated that over 25% of the world’s black money—meaning money resulting from corruption, drug trafficking, terrorism, tax evasion, etc.—is deposited in Swiss banks. This would not have been possible without a state policy executed by Swiss governments, both past and present, which designed and ensured the existence of a legal framework sufficiently lax for the financial sector as a whole to become the international center for money laundering par excellence.
This has been happening since World War II when Switzerland became a refuge for the fortunes—all ill-gotten—of the Nazis. Little can be expected from a country whose authorities and banking establishment showed no qualms about protecting the architects of the Holocaust. Credit Suisse is not the exception; it is the rule.
The amounts involved are not surprising when it comes to Venezuela. Credit Suisse has appeared in numerous previous investigations into corruption in Venezuela. The names that have emerged are already well known (Nervis Villalobos, Francisco Morillo, Leonardo Baquero, Margarita Vargas, Luis Alfonso de Borbón, Carlos Luis Aguilera Borjas, Roberto Rincón, Abraham Shiera, Carlos Kauffman, Leonardo Gonzalez Dellán, Luis Carlos de León, Omar Farías, and brothers Gabriel, Juan Jose, and Leopoldo Castillo Bozo).
Obviously, there are several names missing from this list, which will undoubtedly be the subject of upcoming reports. In the following days, we can expect to read about Alex Saab, Raul Gorrin, the Derwick “bolichicos,” Miguel Angel Capriles Lopez, all clients of Matthias Krull and Tino Sangiorgio, Diego Salazar, Francisco Flores Suarez, etc., all account holders and associated with Credit Suisse.