Note the mention of Paulo Nacif below:
«Another agreement with the Venezuelans detected by the Public Ministry dates back to 2014, which indicates that ESAF, an entity of the BES group, managed for six years the pension fund of PDVSA workers, valued at 3.55 billion dollars. The negotiation was awarded after several contacts between Ricardo Salgado himself, two powerful men of BES Madeira (João Alexandre Silva and Paulo Nacif), and Rafael Ramírez, president of the company and minister of Oil in Venezuela at the time.»
The above relates to the bribery payments of $106 million that the head of Banco Espirito Santo, Ricardo Salgado, paid to partners/collaborators of Rafael Ramírez to manage PDVSA funds. Keep this thought for a moment and read the following instructions that Paulo Nacif sent by email to Pablo Custer and Joao Alexandre Silva on March 21, 2012:
From: PAULO NACIF (BES-SFE-MADEIRA CORPORATE MANAGEMENT)
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 5:16 PM
To: Custer, Pablo; JOAO ALEXANDRE SILVA (BES-SFE-MADEIRA GENERAL MANAGEMENT)
Subject: PDVSA >> Bank transfer of USD 230,000,000 is now being processed
Importance: High
Dear Pablo,
We inform you that today BES is executing a bank transfer ordered by PDVSA for an amount of USD 230,000,000.00.
Best regards,
paulo nacif
Director
Banco Espirito Santo, S.A. – Madeira Branch
International Corporate Banking Americas
Rua Braamcamp, 2 – 5th Floor 1250-050 Lisbon, Portugal
Phone: +351 21 883 4579 Mobile: +351 96 110 2833
Email: [email protected]
Who is Pablo Custer? Along with Dieter Staeubli, personal banker of Violet Advisors – recipient of transfers – at EFG Bank. Who is Violet Advisors? Ignacio and Luis Oberto Anselmi, but also Francisco Convit, Pedro Trebbau, and Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López (Derwick Associates) according to documents seen by this site.
In fact, an internal report from EFG Bank of an «External Visit to Caracas with Ignacio O., Francisco C., Leopoldo B.» on February 21, 2013, refers to Oberto, Convit, and Betancourt as members of a group of clients with whom they discussed the evolution of portfolios and service satisfaction levels.
Elsewhere, the Oberto brothers are described as close partners of Raúl Gorrín and Gustavo Perdomo, also clients of EFG Bank.
According to internal documents from EFG Bank, «during the first half of 2012, these clients carried out highly profitable transactions (through EFG) amounting to approximately USD 1.5 billion. The same amount (probably more!) was transacted through other banks (i.e., CBH Geneva).»
Internal documents from EFG Bank describe what Gorrín, Perdomo, the Obertos, Convit, Trebbau, and Betancourt were doing with PDVSA. A «reputational risk» report states that «PDVSA decided to provide liquidity in USD to the foreign exchange market in the neighborhood of USD 5 billion during 2012.»
In «Other Comments» of the same report, EFG states, «During 2009 we processed currency swaps worth over USD 1 billion where PDVSA was the provider of USD and Banco Activo, C.A. (account 583252) the operator/intermediary.» Legal justifications for these transactions were provided by the «Baker & McKenzie office in Caracas». The Obertos are described as «high-quality counterparties». Pedro Binaggia is also mentioned as a consistent source of «highly profitable business since early 2009». The shells of Raúl Gorrín and Gustavo Perdomo (Vineyard Ventures and Mahogany Commercial S.A.) are also mentioned in relation to the Obertos.
Returning to the email from Banco Espirito Santo, the Violet Advisors EFG account 584684 received $1 billion in transfers from PDVSA between March 21 and April 11, 2012:
– $230,000,000 on March 21;
– $270,000,000 on March 28;
– $175,000,000 on April 2;
– $325,000,000 on April 11.
From that group of one billion dollars and during the same timeframe, the shells related to Derwick Associates controlled by Convit, Trebbau and Betancourt (Minenven, Delphi, Julotti, Zoletto, Imminvest, IPC Investments, Vecon and Sinfin) obtained from Violet Advisors a value of 10% ($100,000,000) in accounts held in Bank Frey, Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique, HSBC, and Julius Baer.
The Obertos also appear to be connected to the Derwick Associates’ partnership with Gazprom in the PDVSA/Gazprom joint venture Petrozamora. A presentation made by Santina Restifo – related to Seguros Venezuela (the Oberto’s insurance company) and BBO Financial Services (the bank of Oberto’s father) – and seen by this site, suggests that the Obertos might own 8% of the 49.44% stake of Derwick in Gazprombank Latinoamérica Ventures, the shell company incorporated in Amsterdam by Gazprom to partner with PDVSA in Petrozamora.
So, the question is: why have Raúl Gorrín and his crew been sanctioned in connection with the money laundering scandal involving Matthias Krull (charged) and Francisco Convit (accused/fugitive) at PDVSA, while Luis and Ignacio Oberto continue living in Miami as if they did nothing? Remember that the above refers to money laundering operations in March/April 2012 at EFG Bank.
Then there is Meinl Bank, and through Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique, according to EFG Bank and confidential sources, the Obertos/Ramirez made another $2.75 billion out of a total of $4.25 billion. Yet, the masterminds behind that other part of the scam (Obertos, Rafael Ramírez, Charles Henry de Beaumont, and Joseph Benhamou) have yet to be prosecuted.
Is this a case of some criminals being more equal than others? This is just a glimpse into the type of business Rafael Ramírez conducted at PDVSA.