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Daniel writes in to say that I should provide a bit of an explanation for why this should be a scandal. I guess that the reason would be that it is simply not normal for a Central Bank, to transfer free and clear, ownership of a sovereign bond, worth $2 billion, to a recently formed limited company with a share capital of £2,000, managed by an individual (Tony Caplin) who appears as inactive in the Financial Services Authority register.

Congressman Carlos Ramos is now turning his attention to Frank Williams' F1 team. PDVSA, the Venezuelan oil State conglomerate, is sponsoring the Williams F1 team. No one in Venezuela -apart from a handful of chavistas- knows how many millions have PDVSA promised and disbursed to Williams F1 team. In any case, according to Venezuelan legislation, no public monies can be committed to any such projects without the approval of the Venezuelan Congress.

The letter from Congressman Carlos Ramos to Isabelle Marand, VP Corporate Coomunications at Gemalto, was delivered to her office in 6 Rue de la Verreine, Meudon, in France, on 7 November 2011, according to La Poste:

Fortunately, somebody in Venezuela is paying attention to the investigations carried out in this blog. The letter below, from Congressman Carlos Ramos (same one who made public the $29 billion hole in FONDEN), addresses some of the issues about the contract between Gemalto and a dodgy Cuban intermediary without track record, for the provision of electronic IDs to Venezuela.

One can see them around. They are unmissable. For all their designer jeans, cool shirts, buckle shoes, limited-production watches, matte or white cars and bespoke perfumes, they can't fool anyone. A characteristic tackiness gives them away. Russians, Africans, above all Arabs, Latin-Americans, to a lesser extent Europeans, they are either the architects of tyranny, or its offsprings. Mayfair, Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Belgravia... London's most expensive areas are their playground.

US embassy cable - 10CARACAS233