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 this site's former editor's full name, and a fake email address (alek.boyd.arregui@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.
As readers may have noticed, this site has been yet again hit by a considerable DDoS attack in the last few days. This attack was followed by a series of reports to Twitter, whereby information posted by us related to multi billion dollar corruption scandals, which are already in the public domain, somehow get categorised as "personal private information" by Twitter algorithms and are summarily deleted.
Check this out, from the U.S. Department of Justice: "Vitol Inc. (Vitol), the U.S. affiliate of the Vitol group of companies, which together form one of the largest energy trading firms in the world, has agreed to pay a combined $135 million to resolve the Justice Department’s investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and to resolve a parallel investigation in Brazil."
UPDATED 09/12/2020 SEE BELOW - Twitter, has got to be said, is less and less a platform for public debate, and more and more a media outlet with a unique editorial line. Whatever makes Jack tick, or takes his fancy, that's what goes. In the mold of Facebook, where the other idiot reigns, Twitter's Terms of Service (ToS) are vague enough to give plenty of subjective room to Twitter's bots to decide what can and can't be posted in the platform.
This site has got hold of a letter, ref. 163X-I-IQ-C2072771, dated August 4 2017, addressed to Erin E. Mikita and signed by Robert C Basanez, whereby the following can be read:
"In 2013, an FBI money laundering investigation was initiated, based on information provided by the Andorran government, into the following individuals:
The Wall Street Journal, an eminently financial publication, printed today -without disclaimer- a spectacularly fake claim: "As much as $100 billion in Venezuelan money and property is up for grabs, including Houston-based oil-refining company Citgo Petroleum Corp., gold bullion housed in the Bank of England, bank accounts in New York and real estate and aircraft in South Florida..." The WSJ called on Javier Troconis
Cesar Alfredo Prada Maneyro and Juan Manuel Paez Maneiro received "personal loans" for $50,000 and $115,000 respectively in November 2012. The funds were wired from an account (AD21 0006 0008 2612 0054 3611) at Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) that belonged to a company called Codfish Investments S.A. Prada Maneyro is a chavista diplomat.
A while ago (pre Covid-19) I collaborated with Guillermo Salas (Former
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