Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Wiliam Saab. Photo: Venezuelan Public Ministry.
The attorney general of Venezuela, Tarek Wiliam Saab, announced the beginning of the process to seize the assets of former minister of petroleum and former president of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Tareck El Aissami, who is currently being prosecuted for crimes of corruption and treason.
The highest authority of the Public Ministry reported on Saturday, April 27, that the seizing of assets of El Aissami, as well as those of the former minister Simón Zerpa and businessman Samark López, has already begun, with their connections being investigated.
Attorney General Saab released this information after the arrest of the former officials, who are currently facing accusations of crimes of treason and appropriation or distraction of public assets, among other charges.
These crimes are among those in the multi-billion dollar corruption plot named PDVSA-crypto; investigation of this case is ongoing. In this regard, Saab stated that they began to be aware of the embezzlement in the state oil company when oil sales money did not reach the coffers of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV).
Saab added that this complex corruption scheme was possible “…thanks to the [digital] financial system that they used for money laundering,” since El Aissami was also in control of other financial institutions such as Bancamiga.
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The prosecutor said “That is why Tareck El Aissami placed Joselit Ramírez as president of Sunacrip as his right-hand man, and they used crypto wallets, in a tiny flash drive, they could store evidence of billion-dollar transactions and cryptocurrency accounts.”
He further mentioned that it is believed that the motive El Aissami used to commit this crime goes beyond economics, since it would be part of a charge for conspiracy.
The attorney general confirmed that these suspicions began to materialize between October and December 2022, when investigations were initiated and a person linked to the loss of money from oil sales was arrested.
Translation by Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/MCM/SL
