Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab during a press conference, July 19, 2022. Photo: Con el Mazo Dando.
This Tuesday, July 19, in his regular press conference, the attorney general of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, reported that Leopoldo López’s protégé, Ernesto Quintero, was extradited from Spain to Venezuela. Quintero is implicated in the financial scam carried out by ABA Mercado de Capitales.
The representative of the Public Ministry said that about 300 people, mostly elderly, were victimized by this fraud, carried out by Ernesto Quintero and others, for an amount of some $50 million.
Saab specified that Quintero was charged on July 18, electronically, from the 51st Control Court of the Metropolitan Area of Caracas before the 9th Control Court of Zulia, for the crimes of fraud, money laundering, appropriation of resources and securities, and conspiracy to commit a crime to the detriment of multiple victims.
The attorney general explained that ABA Mercado de Capitales, Casa de Bolsa, carried out the sale of securities that it had in custody without the authorization of their owners. “These securities were sold or transferred to a company that is part of the ABA consortium, named ABA Capital Markets Corporation, based in the British Virgin Islands,” Attorney General Saab detailed. “Upon being sold or transferred to ABA Capital Markets, these titles ceased to be under Venezuelan jurisdiction and disappeared from the accounting of ABA Mercado de Capitales, making it impossible to claim them from the owners to date.”
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For this reason, it was determined that ABA Mercado de Capitales, through companies that were part of the ABA consortium, was attracting investments as well as securities without being authorized by the National Superintendence of Securities.
The victims
Among those swindled were the Savings Bank of the Zulia Bar Association, the Savings Bank of the Social Welfare Institute for Teaching and Research Personnel of the University of Zulia, and the Savings and Loan Bank of the Workers of the Mayor’s Office of the Libertador municipality of Mérida state.
Also on the list are the Institute of Social Welfare and Savings for Workers of the Universidad Nacional Experimental Sur del Lago Jesús María Semprúm, the Civil Association of Workers of Cadafe Carabobo-Cojedes, the Savings and Loan Bank of the Professors of the University Institute of Technology of Maracaibo, and the Civil Association of the Savings and Loan Bank of Municipal Employees of the Municipality of Valencia, among others.
Legal procedure
For this case, Venezuelan courts are investigating 25 people for their links with the ABA Group. These are shareholders, directors, and senior officials of the financial group.
Of these, three have been charged, and are awaiting a preliminary hearing. Seventeen are on the run, with an arrest warrant and a red alert from Interpol, and four have been dismissed. Ernesto Quintero can now be added to the list of those charged.
The defendants are Ernesto González Rubio, for the commission of the crime of appropriation of funds or securities, and Isabel Farías and Juan Carlos Abudei, for fraud, improper recruitment, money laundering and criminal association.
Unfortunately, two of those processed were detained in Colombia. Extradition was requested but the government of Iván Duque denied it.
Link with López
Among the ties that unite Ernesto Quintero with the fugitive from Venezuelan justice, Leopoldo López, is that the far-right Venezuelan politician came out in defense of this swindler in February of this year, and even the Spanish media branded him as an opposition leader, although Quintero is not known for his political inclinations. This serves to demonstrate the depths of dishonesty in which Spain’s media is complicit, and leaves Quintero’s defense fairly empty. For this reason, AG Saab recalled that this practice of presenting a case of fraud or criminality as political persecution is not new. It also evinces the level of deprivation and lack of values among the far-right opposition leadership in Venezuela.
(RedRadioVE) by Victoria Torres, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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