Rafael Ramirez [aka "Grey Hair"] outed in Rincon, Villalobos, Alvarado, PDVSA & Espirito Santo criminal case

Remember this scandal, involving Ricardo Salgado's Banco Espirito Santo and Rafael Ramirez? It seems Portuguese authorities are more collaborative than Spanish ones... We hear about a criminal probe in Houston (related to Roberto Rincon) that got fresh impetus and has all but outed Ramirez [aka "Grey Hair", "Official B"]. Javier Alvarado -Ramirez's chum at BARIVEN and CORPOELEC- is charged, as well as Nervis Villalobos, one of Ramirez's favourite proxies.

This particular case relates to about $1 billion stolen / laundered from PDVSA by Ramirez and his "administrative team". But this does not even begin to cover, by any stretch, the depth of Ramirez's gargantuan corruption while heading PDVSA and Venezuela's Ministry of Energy. This window shows the depravity of corruption in chavista Venezuela, but is just a side dish, a little scheme. There are so many others, much, much larger... Alejandro Betancourt, another Ramirez favourite, is still playing businessman, as is Baldo Sanso (Ramirez's brother in law), as are the Neri Bonilla brothers in Spain... Ramirez doesn't have to be put away for all he's done though, DoJ should just give him the Al Capone treatment and retire the entire criminal clan.

Ramirez has A LOT to worry about, having to reveal potential deals and collaboration with Federal Agencies being just one aspect of it. But the man's involved in so many scandals, in so many jurisdictions, that short of surrendering himself to U.S. justice and entering a witness protection program he'll end up in jail sometime, somewhere.