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UPDATED 19/04/2021 - Early last December, the community managers / PR people retained by Alex Saab started directing targeted harassment against this site's editor on Twitter. In January, it got really aggressive. It may have to do with the fact that a Twitter account used to spread Saab's victimhood BS was shut down after we reported it. The way the harassment campaign works is dozens / hundreds Twitter accounts are created, with fake names and fake pictures.

When it comes to the chavista universe of the phenomenally corrupt, Alex Saab has a special place. The seat of honor has his name tag. A Colombian, who didn’t have two pennies to rub together only a decade ago, lands in Venezuela with narcosenator Piedad Córdoba, and in the space of 5 years becomes Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores' most trusted consigliere. Saab has put the entire class of Venezuelan Boligarchs to shame. Venezuela is his turf.

A propos of news yesterday from Cape Verde regarding extradition of Alex Saab, recall Baker & Hostetler idiotic claims about Alex Saab's 'diplomatic immunity', and how such immunity exonerates him not only from jurisdiction of U.S. courts but from criminal prosecution altogether? Well, the U.S. Department of Justice's (DoJ) response to it (see pdf below) is akin to a bitch-slap.

Quoting from source: "MBaer Merchant Bank AG is majority-owned by Swiss investors, while other groups of shareholders are based in Asia and the Middle East. The shareholders include numerous private investors, above all entrepreneurs who are also our clients and are themselves widely connected." [bold added] Frank Glundler is the Chief Compliance Officer of Mbaer Merchant Bank AG.

A well known trope in Venezuela is that Hugo Chavez was the most charismatic politician, and that Nicolas Maduro was just the loyal fool handpicked to continue the "Bolivarian Revolution". When Chavez's death was announced, nobody gave Maduro much of a chance. The thinking was that he was no Chavez, that he didn't have what it took. Maduro has been massively underestimated. For years. Yet he can easily claim to be the shrewdest, more so than even Chavez, whose time in power was aided by the largest oil windfall ever received.

Recent news from Gotham City revealed that Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique (CBH) had intermediated for Alex Saab in some completely corrupt Venezuela-related business. Unsurprising, considering players. In June 2020, sources informed this site that Colombian - Swiss citizen Jorge Guillermo Wurms Forero was Alex Saab's proxy.

The following is part of a book I am writing on Venezuela's corruption. It explains Smartmatic's "success" in Venezuela. Donate £1 / $1 / €1 here, if you think I should continue.

The Miami Herald reported the following, on Friday May 28, 2004:

Thug Alejandro Betancourt was recently in the news. A data scrapping effort by France's Le Monde (#OpenLux) revealed Betancourt uses Luxembourg in his money laundering activities. Readers of this site had known that, of course, for many years. The Miami Herald had -at last- the decency to link to this site's story about Betancourt's little energy deal with the Russians: Gazprombank Latin America Ventures B.V. and Petrozamora. Again, nothing new there, that stuff was exposed here years ago.