The front of the Palace of Justice, the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice in Caracas. File photo.
The trial against Venezuela’s former Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami, several other public officials, and private business owners accused of embezzling funds from Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) continues, the Public Ministry announced.
The trial for this criminal case began on Monday, April 20. It is presided over by the 3rd Trial Court at the Palace of Justice in Caracas, which oversees Cases Related to Crimes Associated with Terrorism within National Jurisdiction. The court is presided over by Justice Alejandra Romero Castillo. It will hear arguments from all parties and decide on cases involving corruption and organized crime.
The 64 individuals accused in the case, including former ministers El Aissami and Simón Zerpa; former National Assembly Deputy Hugbel Roa; former vice president of PDVSA, Antonio Pérez Suárez; and former head of the National Superintendency of Cryptoassets (SUNACRIP), Joselit Ramírez, were brought to the court.
Other accused include the brothers Carmelo, Daniel, and Levi De Grazia; the brothers Vicente, Rafael, and Roger Perdomo; and Samark López. These businessmen and others were “responsible for diverting the resources obtained from illegal crude allocations and from the contracting processes for works and services that were executed without any kind of control,” according to the Public Ministry’s accusation.
That first session of the trial began at 9:32 p.m. on Monday, April 20, and concluded at 2:39 a.m. on Tuesday, April 21. The first to take the floor was National Prosecutor No. 50 Eddy Alberto Rodríguez Bencomo, who reaffirmed the accusation against the defendants, considering them members of “a corruption network formed by public officials who, taking advantage of their position and levels of authority, proceeded to carry out parallel oil operations through the assignment of crude oil loads by PDVSA to the National Superintendency of Cryptoactives and private individuals, without any type of control.”
Following Prosecutor Rodríguez Bencomo, representatives of the Attorney General’s Office and PDVSA took the floor, representing the interests of the Venezuelan State and its main oil company.
Then, the defenders of both public officials and private individuals began their interventions. María Mercedes Berthé, the former director of the Public Ministry, is defending El Aissami. She requested a precautionary measure allowing the former minister to be released from custody for the remainder of the process due to a health condition. Berthé explained that El Aissami recently underwent surgery due to the strangulation of a hernia, and the mesh placed to close the wound shifted, which has led to immobilization in some organs.
Lawyer Katy Marín also spoke in defense of Colonel Manuel Parra, former president of PDVSA-Marina, during the first session of the trial. Marín argued that the trial should be annulled due to alleged irregularities, including the alleged violations of the right to be assisted by a legal professional of the defendants’ choice, as all the accused had been assigned a public defender.
Marín also criticized the Public Ministry’s accusation presented by Prosecutor Rodríguez Bencomo. “It is a very generic accusation that does not specify the role each person played in that alleged corruption network,” claimed Marín.
After 2 a.m. on April 21, the judge suspended the session and scheduled it for Wednesday, April 22, during which the defense lawyers continued their interventions. They presented their arguments, which were mostly aimed at demanding guarantees for their clients. Daniel Guedez, for example, stated that the defense has not yet had access to the case file.
After the second session, Judge Romero Castillo scheduled the following session for Friday, April 24.
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Details of the case
The 64 accused were arrested between March 2023 and April 2024 as part of the Anti-Corruption Operation announced by the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Initially, 81 arrest warrants were issued, of which 61 were executed. These arrests involve 61 individuals allegedly involved in acts of corruption in the judiciary, municipalities, and the state-owned companies PDVSA, Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), and Cartones de Venezuela (CARTOVEN).
The corruption scheme in the oil industry has the highest number of detainees, with 41 prosecuted. It was grouped into a file called PDVSA-Crypto because it involved parallel operations to sell Venezuelan crude oil, with revenues that did not enter the national treasury but were converted into crypto-assets, according to the Public Ministry.
The investigation by the Attorney General’s Office is presented in a document, numbered MP-55864-2023. Technically referred to as “Accusation,” the document contains 1,706 letter-sized pages. The investigation revealed that the embezzlement at PDVSA amounts to $5.5 billion.
(Últimas Noticias) by Eligio Rojas
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SF
