These were the actors and structures used by Alessandro Bazzoni and Joaquín Leal Jiménez to trade Venezuelan crude oil assigned to Alex Saab for the exchange, initially of tankers and later of food.
PDVSA allocated its quotas for crude loading through shell companies: Libre Abordo, Schlager Business Group, and Proton. Bazzoni and Leal would then call Erik Roveta, an Italian residing in Greece, to manage their ships for loading.
Subsequently, they endorsed the cargo to Swiss Oil Trading SA, owned by Philipp Apikian, to market it in Asia. Finally, they relied on Mexican financier José Luis Chávez for managing all cash flows and payments.
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