Headquarters of the Venezuelan Bancamiga bank in Caracas. Photo: Bancamiga.
The Venezuelan Public Ministry is filing charges against the brothers Daniel José, Levin Salvatore, and Carmelo De Grazia Suárez for treason. These bankers were arrested on Friday, April 19, by law enforcement agents belonging to the CICPC.
The De Grazia brothers are the main shareholders of the 17-year-old financial entity Bancamiga. They had an arrest warrant issued by the Special Court 2 against Terrorism, according to file 02-CT-S-043-23.The Special Court 2 investigated the five corruption schemes involving tge PDVSA, the Venezuelan Corporation of Guyana, Cartones de Venezuela, the Judiciary, and some mayoral offices.
These bankers will also be charged with profit or diversion of money, securities, or public property, taking advantage of relationships or influences, money laundering, and association to commit a crime, as stated in arrest warrants 104-24, 104-25 and 104-26.
The preliminary investigation indicates that Bancamiga kept the currencies of those businessmen who wanted to do business with PDVSA in custody when the now-detained Tarek El Aissami was in charge of the Venezuelan state oil company, the sources explained.
Additionally, the sources explained that the president of Bancamiga, Carmelo De Grazia, was assigned PDVSA oil vessels at a rate of 43 dollars per barrel and he resold them at a higher price; all in coordination with Samark LĂłpez and El Aissami.
Venezuela: Former Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami Arrested for Corruption
LĂłpez managed operations with Bancamiga, which is why that bank had international products as part of its ties with the United States where this businessman was exonerated from a criminal investigation in 2021.
Samark LĂłpez was arrested last Tuesday, April 9, along with El Aissami and SimĂłn Zerpa. El Aissami was presented by the attorney general, Tarek William Saab, as the “head of a mafia” entrenched in PDVSA and other state companies. Aissami and his group were involved in a plan to destroy the Venezuelan economy by boosting the black-market dollar [in 2022], a situation that impacted the price of food and other goods, according to what was investigated and reported by Venezuela’s Attorney General. They sought the chaos of the country to provoke the overthrow of President Nicolás Maduro, according to the Venezuelan Public Ministry.
The arrests of LĂłpez, El Aissami, and Zerpa occurred as a result of the delations made by five defendants, previously arrested, in the corruption schemes investigated by the Public Ministry since 2023.
It is not clear yet what the future of the bank institution will be taking into consideration the multi-billion dollar magnitude of this new corruption plot and the patrimonial damage to the archs of the Venezuelan economy.
For now, the information about these new detentions has been kept low profile. Some analysts believe it is due to the sensitive nature of the issue that affects the finances of thousands of Venezuelans who keep their savings in this bank.
(Ăšltimas Noticias) by Eligio Rojas with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/DZ
