The obsession with luxury of the network that looted 2,000 million dollars from Petróleos de Venezuela

Bills for mega-luxury hotel presidential suites of $1.8 million; a 1.3 million closet; private flights to Nicaragua of $761,497; cooking courses of 430,690; a private gym of 388,658… The network that plundered 2,000 million dollars from Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) entered a spiral of waste after perpetrating the theft of the main public company of the Latin American country between 2007 and 2012. Unpublished documents to the that EL PAÍS has had access to reveal unknown expenses of this plot of more than thirty people, among whom are the former Vice Ministers of Energy of Venezuela of the Government of Hugo Chávez (2002-2013) Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado.

The chapter on refined accommodations concentrated the most juicy expenditure item of this group of achievers, which charged up to 10% commission for opening the door to companies to the awards of the Venezuelan energy giant. The organization paid at least 1.8 million in 2014 to a travel agency in Florida (Miami) for more than twenty exclusive stays in presidential suites of the Four Seasons chains in Paris, Mexico and New York, and the Sheraton from Frankfurt.

The plot also stayed at Hong Kong's Mandarin Oriental hotels; Bristol of Panama; Grand Hyatt in Shanghai and at the Atlantis (Bahamas) and Le Blanc (Cancun) resorts, which offer their clients a butler, views of the Caribbean Sea, luxury rooms and swimming pools. infinity, according to their website. A vacation at the Mandarin Rivera Maya for $283,178 completes the new traces of the waste.

The Panamanian company High Advisory and Consulting SA, controlled by the businessman and alleged front man of the group, Luis Mariano Rodríguez Cabello, was the organization's instrument to pay the expenses. Rodríguez Cabello, in turn, is the straw man of Diego Salazar, cousin of former Chavista Minister of Energy, former president of PDVSA and former ambassador to the UN Rafael Ramírez, according to the investigation led by an Andorran judge. Since 2018, around thirty people have been prosecuted in the case for money laundering and belonging to a network that plundered the Venezuelan public company.

Hotel stays came complete with luxury extras. Thus, the group paid $430,690 for “miscellaneous gifts, transportation and a cooking course” during a trip to Paris and another $538,362 for “miscellaneous expenses” on another trip to the French capital.

The scheme, which acquired 21 homes valued at 52 million, allocated almost seven to decorate and renovate its exclusive properties. The tracing of the charges reveals that the group spent 1.4 million on a three-module wardrobe, 1.3 on furniture from an Italian firm – the sum included transportation from Livorno and Genoa to Venezuela -, 1.4 million on a dining room for one of the offices, more than a million in marble supplies for a property in Caracas, 600,000 dollars in other pieces of exclusive furniture and 388,658 in a private gym.

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The network also spent one million on state-of-the-art telecommunications systems, 230,000 on architectural projects, 200,000 on carpentry and another identical figure on lighting equipment for the personal home on the beach of one of its members. An item of 13,000 euros for a pool table completes the decorative and accessories section for the house.

Party dresses and Dom Pérignon champagne

The taste for clothing led the organization to pay $151,716 in October 2011 for 60 black tuxedos, as many shirts and 30 bow and sash sets. Another charge reveals a disbursement of $131,561 to purchase Italian clothing from a firm whose name is not detailed.

An order for 153 bottles of 2004 Dom Pérignon Champagne ($129,875); another 23 cases of this drink from the Taittinger brand (29,519); a purchase at the Ronchi wine bar in Milan (28,323) or $55,000 in whiskey make up the expenditure on alcohol at the expense of the energy company's loot.

The organization that looted PDVSA acquired a new Eurocopter Ec135 helicopter for 2.6 million in November 2011 with capacity for six passengers and a pilot, as this newspaper revealed. The new bank charges confirm that the network also spent $50,000 on the maintenance of this aircraft, $114,282 on equipping a Beechcraft twin-turboprop private plane, and $761,497 on private flights to Nicaragua.

The analysis of the network transfers in the entity in which he hid his loot, the Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA), where only the front man of the organization, the businessman Luis Mariano Rodríguez Cabello, moved 1,144 million through a skein of 11 accounts between 2007 and 2015, reveals that the corrupt plot paid a productivity bonus of $350,000 to its employee EJ Villegas Carrillo. And he allocated $100,000 for Rodríguez Cabello to acquire tax residency in Dubai.

Formed by former leaders of the late President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) and officials of the state firm, the scheme charged commissions of more than 10% to companies, especially Chinese, which were later awarded with PDVSA contracts, as this newspaper revealed. . The network hid its loot through a complicated web of accounts in the BPA.

Through thirty opaque companies located in tax havens such as Switzerland or Belize, the plot moved its flow of funds to Andorra, a country of 78,000 inhabitants protected until 2017 by banking secrecy. The group camouflaged the millionaire income under the umbrella of consulting jobs that, according to investigators, did not exist.

Since 2018, an Andorran judge has held around thirty members of this plot on trial for money laundering in a banking establishment and belonging to a network.

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