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.
Is the ask that has no reasonable explanation: how come Rafael Ramirez has not been indicted, charged, arrested, extradited, jailed? Anyone that has spent more than five minutes in Venezuela knows the answer. Justice is something reserved for political foes, a tool to be used selectively, when convenient and politically expedient. Ramirez seems to have become a target in some factions within chavismo, but it will be difficult to disentangle mess left behind. For one Nicolas Maduro was sitting across the table in PDVSA's board when Ramirez was looting the company with family and friends.
Someone must have shared "UPDATED - Nervis Villlalobos & Rafael Ramirez' web of corruption exposed" with Tareck el Aissami, who, in developing news, denounced yesterday some (just some) of the participants in a scheme that misappropriated and laundered over $4 billion dollars in 2012. El Aissami mentioned Rafael Ramirez, Luis and Ignacio Oberto, architects behind the theft of course. Nervis Villalobos,
Francisco D'Agostino and Francisco Convit can easily be described as elite members of Venezuela's top corruption echelons. Treasury sanctioned D'Agostino "...for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy and materially assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of PdVSA" (read assisting Alex Saab).
Julio Herrera Velutini has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for his involvement in a bribery scheme that sought to place one of his stooges at the top of Puerto Rico's financial watchdog (Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions or OCIF).
The FBI has just arrested former Governor of Puerto Rico Wanda Vazquez Garced.
Alex Saab is in jail and is not coming out any time soon. That presented Nicolas Maduro & co with a problem: who could take his place in schemes to avoid U.S. Treasury sanctions, now that American justice had caught up? Enter Theon Ali* and Ensa Energia: a Trinidadian proxy with a shell registered in Labuan.
Fresh reports from Spain indicate that Alejandro Betancourt, CEO of Derwick Associates, paid Martin Rodil €500,000 for protection through a shell called Erasmus Haven. The news come in the context of arrest, in Switzerland, of Luis Fernando Vuteff one of the "bankers" involved in Money Flight, the $1.2 billion money laundering scheme set up by Rafael Ramirez and his friends.
Check out this headline: "Former top Venezuelan oil ministry lawyer gets 4 years in Miami money laundering case." The lawyer in question is Carmelo Urdaneta Aqui, a confidant and trusted operator in all manner of corruption of Rafael Ramirez.
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