Message to INFODIO readers: investigative journalism, which is what this site does, takes lots of time. Visiting media looking for a quick run down on Venezuela's gargantuan corruption, have the decency to at least cite the source when plagiarising this site's content without attribution (exhibit Reuters here and here, exhibit Bloomberg here, exhibit OCCRP here). To all readers, do the right thing, the honest thing: support independent investigative journalism, help us expose rampant corruption. Note added 28/06/2021: impostors are using INFODIO's former editor's full name, and a fake email address (alek.boyd.arregui at gmail.com) to send copyright infringement claims / take down requests to web hosting companies (exhibit Hostgator). The attempt is yet another effort paid by corrupt thugs to erase information about their criminal activities. Infodio.com has no issues with other websites / journalists using / posting information published here, so long as the source is properly cited.
The WSJ posted yesterday "U.S. Targets Venezuela’s Maduro Regime With Fresh Charges, Sanctions". It's about criminal charges brought by the Justice Department (DoJ) against small time thugs (Leonardo Santilli, Lenny Rangel and Edoardo Orsoni), due to $146.6 million worth of procurement contracts obtained through bribe payments from joint ventures where PDVSA is the largest shareholder. So far, so common.
*UPDATED 16/03/2020 - Nynas AB is a Venezuelan-Swedish refiner and producer of bitumen and naphtenics. It is currently undergoing a restructuring process overseen by administrators.
In a desperately mad fuite-en-avant, a number of thugs involved in Venezuela's gargantuan corruption are taking actions against this site. When DDoS and hacking attempts no longer produce expected results, novel ways are being used. Somebody on Frank Leon Holder's behalf took the trouble to file a DMCA request with Google, arguing that content originated in this website was a breach to "their copyrights". It was so brazen that it is worth repeating:
Florida Senator Rick Scott would like to portray himself as some sort of ethical guardian of what's good and proper when it comes to legal representation retained by chavista thugs in America. His protestations in this respect started with a public letter to Foley & Lardner, where he claimed: "It has recently come to my attention that your firm was hired by Inspector General Reinaldo Muñoz, the top lawyer for Nicolas Maduro’s brutal regime in Venezuela.
Persistent rumours about a super indictement against Nicolas Maduro, Cilia Flores, Tareck el Aisami, and Diosdado Cabello are making the rounds. It would be President Trump's administration way of ratcheting up pressure on chavismo, and according to sources could go as far as including Venezuela in the list of States Sponsors of Terrorism along Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.
Perhaps the best exhibit of how not to influence America's judiciary is the blowback caused by Rudy Giuliani's hamfisted efforts to let Alejandro Betancourt off the hook, due to his financing Juan Guaido's attempts to unseat Nicolas Maduro.
While in book-writing mode I bumped again into Dinosaur Merchant Bank. It made a rather noisy entrance in 2017, when it intermediated in a transaction where Goldman Sachs bought $2.8 billion worth of Venezuela 2022 bonds on 31 cents on the dollar. I read about it in this affidavit (paragraph 83), in relation to a $100 million bond portfolio belonging to Wilmer Ruperti.
English
Español
