Message to INFODIO readers: investigative journalism, which is what this site does, takes lots of time and effort. Visiting media looking for a quick run down on Venezuela's gargantuan corruption, pls have the decency to at least cite the source when plagiarising this site's content without attribution (exhibit Reuters here, exhibit Bloomberg here, exhibit OCCRP here). To all readers: do the right thing, the honest thing, support independent investigative journalism. 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. 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. Note added 12/06/2026: infodio.com has not created mirror websites / domains and remains totally independent and unrelated to others. Beware of websites using our brand.
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.
An email from the Data Protection Commission in Ireland, which oversees Twitter's behaviour in Europe under GDPR rules, brought into focus the reality of dealing with unaccountable social media platforms. After's Twitter's decision to permanently suspend my verified @alekboyd account, I filed a GDPR request with the watchdog. What I wanted, still want, was to recover my account's data, tweets, pictures, etc.
We have been meaning to dive into #OpenLux, Le Monde's data scrapping exercise at Luxembourg's registry of companies. This site has been keeping track of activities in that principality for a while. In 2016 we exposed Derwick Associates's "diversification" (read money laundering) into Luxembourg's jurisdiction. Yesterday, the Miami Herald and OCCRP reported on #OpenLux findings, however both outlets contain inaccurate information.
Further to Tribune de Genève article "Qui dirige le Venezuela? La justice suisse a fait son choix", on the Affaire PDVSA v Helsinge, Glencore, Trafigura, Vitol, Lukoil et al, and on determination of PDVSA's valid legal counsel in Swiss criminal proceedings, Switzerland's Federal Tribunal has decided against Helsinge, and by extension against Juan Guaido.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (USGAO) released a report yesterday, "Additional Tracking Could Aid Treasury's Efforts to Mitigate Any Adverse Impacts U.S. Sanctions Might Have on Humanitarian Assistance", which found that "Despite U.S.
Check background here. In short, vessels Kitakaze (IMO 9221918) and Mirame (IMO 9227948) lifted about 3.8 million barrels of PDVSA crude in late December / early January. Tracor Trading Company Limited is shown in PDVSA's line up as final client. It is unclear what crude Kitakaze lifted, but Mirame loaded crude produced by PDVSA - Rosneft joint venture Petromonagas.
Joshua Goodman reports in "Venezuela hired Democratic Party donor for $6 million" about a FARA filing -by PDV USA Inc- that "...documents, which were disclosed Thursday, show a U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil giant PDVSA agreed to hire Marcia Wiss’ Washington law firm in March 2017.
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