While writing my book, I came across Dinosaur Merchant Bank again. It made quite a splash in 2017 when it facilitated a transaction involving Goldman Sachs purchasing $2.8 billion in bonds from Venezuela 2022 at 31 cents on the dollar. I read about this in a sworn statement (paragraph 83) concerning a $100 million bond portfolio owned by Wilmer Ruperti. Some time ago, I received documents regarding an Italian company that seized a shipment from PDVSA in Curaçao (later auctioned), in which Dinosaur was somehow involved, alongside lawyers working for Maduro and his associates. More recently, the Superintendency of Banks of Panama seems determined to transfer the seized assets of Víctor Vargas to Dinosaur.
Roberto Javier Keeton is part of Dinosaur. Since there are only three Keeton families in Venezuela, I conducted some inquiries and was able to determine that Roberto is the son of Jerome (Jerry) Keeton, whom I know personally. The Keetons are based in Mérida, a city I spent considerable time in the past. There is a powerful chavista from Mérida as well: Tareck el Aissami.
Sources have informed this site that Víctor Vargas’s issue in Venezuela stems from mismanaging funds from drug traffickers. Hundreds of millions. Recovering anything in Panama from a Superintendent who used to work for Vargas seems like a rather viable possibility.
With all the talk about a supposed super indictment in progress, potentially targeting Tareck el Aissami, Nicolás Maduro, his immediate family, and other friends linked to Bolivarian drug trafficking, federal investigators and prosecutors should examine the connections of Dinosaur in Venezuela and who ultimately linked this four-man operation to bond transactions, oil auctions, etc. Dinosaur appears to have a strange knack for securing deals from chavistas and/or their associates. This doesn’t happen without the blessing of someone at the top (perhaps Tareck?), especially for a small firm without significant revenue (aside from what comes from Venezuela) that hides its true owners behind shells in Delaware and Bermuda.