Venezuelan authorities announced 11 arrest warrants on Saturday in a widening corruption probe focused on billions of dollars in lost oil revenue that has reached the ruling elite’s inner circle.
Prosecutor Tarek William Saab said 21 people have already been arrested over an alleged scheme to sell Venezuelan crude through the country’s cryptocurrency watchdog without payment owed to state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA. Joselit Ramirez, who handled crypto payments to state agencies, is among those arrested, Saab said.
Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami, a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro who has not been formally implicated in the investigation, resigned last week.
Venezuela is among the world’s most corrupt countries, and Maduro is trying to crack down on graft ahead of presidential elections in 2024, in which he is likely to run for a third six-year term.
Saab confirmed the arrest of ruling party MP Hugbel Roa, who this week was stripped of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution. A former technology minister, Roa played a key role in promoting the Petro, a sovereign cryptocurrency proposed by Maduro in 2017 to counter U.S. attempts to restrict Venezuela’s access to the global financial system.
Roa and Ramírez were allegedly part of a ring of money-laundering recruits who were “rewarded with a luxury lifestyle,” Saab said, showing videos of armored vehicles, bundles of dollar bills and private jets used by the accused.
The government officials will face charges of treason, in addition to misappropriation and money laundering, Saab said.
Photo Credit – iStock.com/NatanaelGinting
