Venezuelan Football: A Corruption Playground for Pdvsa Operators and Politicians

The Venezuelan state oil company Pdvsa has been a hotbed of corruption involving operators, financiers, and politicians who profited from the purchase and management of football teams and academies both within and outside Venezuela. This activity was particularly favored by former Chavista leader Tareck El Aissami, who is accused of leading the corruption network that diverted billions through the illegal sale of Venezuelan oil and cryptocurrency operations, among other illicit businesses.

Corruption operators controlled several football teams in Venezuela with the backing of the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF), an organization affiliated with FIFA. Part of the stolen money may have also been used to buy football teams in Europe, a common practice used by criminal organizations to launder money, according to Primer Informe.

One of El Aissami’s associates and operators, deputy Hugbel Roa, had a network of officials and front men who shared an “interest” in football-related businesses. Roa, arrested last March for his involvement in Pdvsa’s corruption scheme, has been president of the Trujillanos team since 2008. His front man, businessman Alejandro Arroyo, currently imprisoned for his role in the scandal, owns another team, Mineros de Guayana.

Advertisement Alejandro Arroyo

The business was so profitable that Arroyo had offices in a luxurious business district in London (St. James Square) under the suggestive name Kronos Commodities LTD, where he is believed to manage the businesses of Roa and El Aissami. Additionally, he owned a multimillion-dollar mansion in the Caracas Country Club, which was seized.

Another businessman, Jorge Silva, presides over another long-standing team, Deportivo Táchira. Although Silva has not yet been linked to the recent Pdvsa corruption scandal, he is closely connected to Delcy Rodríguez, who currently controls Pdvsa after Tareck El Aissami’s dramatic downfall.

Another protected associate of El Aissami and Roa is the football director and former player Laydecker Navas, who managed their football businesses in the Portuguesa and Anzoátegui states, including dozens of youth football academies. Navas has been accused of misappropriating funds from the Minor Football Association and charging illegal fees to families of children enrolling in the academies controlled by the network.

Laydecker Navas

Another strongman of the Venezuelan regime, Minister and former Governor Wilmar Castro Soteldo, who is also implicated in the massive oil corruption scheme, had control of another well-known team: Portuguesa Fútbol Club, in the state where he once served as governor. Castro Soteldo is accused of leading a fraud network alongside Pdvsa’s Vice President of Commerce and Supply, former Colonel José Antonio Pérez Suárez, who is currently in prison. They reportedly offered payments of food goods with oil quotas to agricultural entrepreneurs in Venezuela that were never delivered, diverting them to a group of international operators, including Italian Erik Roveta, who profited from the sale of these crude quotas.

Castro Soteldo’s activism in Venezuelan football business went so far that when he was governor of Portuguesa, he offered to build a hotel specifically designed to accommodate regional football players and visitors.

One of Tareck El Aissami’s international associates, Italian businessman Alessandro Bazzoni, entered the most expensive deal in Italian football in 2021 after a multimillion-dollar investment, according to sources close to him, regarded by the United States as the “successor” to Álex Saab.

Bazzoni’s brother, Lorenzo, appears as a director of the second division football club Spal, founded more than a century ago in the Italian locality of Ferrara by Salesian parents.

Recently, in 2021, Spal was purchased by a group of investors represented by American Joe Tacopina, personal lawyer of former President Donald Trump, for an undisclosed amount.

Ironically, Alessandro Bazzoni was included in the OFAC sanctions list on the last day of Donald Trump’s administration (January 19, 2021), whom Tacopina currently represents.

Alesandro Bazzoni

According to Primer Informe, in the negotiation to acquire the Spal Club, Tacopina controlled 49% of the shares through Tacopina Italian Football Investment SRL.

Shortly after purchasing SPAL, Tacopina told Forbes he planned to inject between US$13 and US$14 million into the club. However, the investment doubled. In a recent article published on the SPAL Club’s website, he stated that he has already invested a total of 25 million euros.

Primer Informe could not confirm whether the multimillion-dollar investment to expand the SPAL Club was partially funded with money from Pdvsa’s corruption.

Although Tacopina has not publicly announced Alessandro Bazzoni’s ownership stake, in an interview with the Italian portal estense.com, he admitted that a “top secret” Italian family had contributed funds for the acquisition of the Spal Club. This mysterious family is suspected to be Alessandro Bazzoni and his wife Siri Evjemo-Mysveem, curiously represented by Lorenzo Bazzoni, described as an “Accountant” and “merchant,” “based in Milan.”

The purchase of football teams has historically been a common mechanism for money laundering operations through player management, purchases, and cash handling at ticket offices and stores during matches. In Venezuela, this is augmented by the collection of illegal commissions and fees from fans and players.

One emblematic case of money laundering has been Chelsea FC, purchased by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who was sanctioned last year by the UK for his connections to Vladimir Putin’s corruption.

Both Tareck El Aissami and Hugbel Roa and Alessandro Bazzoni are under investigation for their involvement in a complex corruption scheme that has caused estimated losses of over US$21 billion.

While El Aissami and Roa are currently in custody in Venezuela, the Attorney General of Venezuela issued an arrest warrant against Italian Bazzoni.

Sources told Primer Informe that the Pdvsa corruption scheme involving Tareck El Aissami and businessman Alessandro Bazzoni—two individuals explicitly sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury—is under the scrutiny of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, based in Miami.