Latest

A penal court in Geneva has ruled in favour of PDVSA in case brought against Helsinge, according to sources. A criminal investigation was launched in early March this year, following complaint filed on 13 February with Geneva's Public Prosecutor's Office by Swiss law firm Canonica Valticos de Preux. It remains to be seen how the ruling will affect energy trading houses Glencore, Trafigura, Vitol, Lukoil and others involved with Helsinge, and indeed the Florida case of PDVSA US litigation Trust.

"Binaggia worked with EFG, $1.5 billion went through it. But then EFG got cold feet, and after getting their 1% commission told the Obertos to take their business elsewhere. That's when Charles and Danilo came in..." That is how the source described one of PDVSA's forays into cooling Venezuela's economy, by removing "excess" cash from circulation.

More leaks suggest DoJ is preparing another set of indictments / charges against Venezuelan Boligarchs. This $4 billion money laudering gig will feature Charles Henry de Beaumont, his boss at Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique Joseph Benhamou; Pedro Binnagia, Pablo Custer and Dieter Stäubli at EFG Bank; and a yet-to-be-revealed banker Stephen Coleman and Peter Weinzierl at Meinl Bank.

So it came to pass: Alejandro Andrade, aka "teniente chapita", got sentenced to 10 years.

I was going to write a bit about David Boies' latest attempt to keep PDVSA US Litigation Trust civil case alive in Florida. But a Twitter thread will do the trick just fine. Boies has more pressing issues, dealing with DoJ for one, which might explain his idiotic arguments.

There's more to Raul Gorrin. The U.S. Department of Justice (bless them) has just scratched the surface. On Tuesday, December 1, 2009, Gorrin sent an email with -among others- the following instruction:

Monto 3.850.000

HSBC PRIVATE BANK (SWITZERLAND) SA 2, General Guisan CH­1211 Geneve swift: BLICCHGG

Attention: Angelo Mazzarella Beneficiary Bellsite Overseas S.A Account no. 1574680

It is quite difficult to make sense of the Justice Deparment's latest in fight against Venezuelan corruption (see full release below). Alejandro Andrade got to be appointed head of Banco del Tesoro (Treasury Deparment) out of pity. It weren't Andrade's financial credentials, of which he has none, that got him the job.