InfoBytes Blog
Swiss banker sentenced to 10 years in Venezuelan state-owned oil company embezzlement and bribery scheme; official pleads guilty in same scheme
On October 29, a former banker was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison for his role in a scheme to launder funds embezzled from a Venezuelan state-owned oil company. The banker had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on August 22, 2018. He admitted to using his position at the bank to attract clients from Venezuela. He helped some of those clients launder proceeds from the company's foreign-exchange embezzlement scheme using false-investment schemes and Miami real estate. The PDVSA money was originally obtained through bribery and fraud.
Two days later, on October 31, a former executive director of financial planning at the Venezuelan state-owned oil company pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in the same scheme. He admitted to accepting $5 million in bribes to give priority loan status to a French company and Russian bank. The former executive was paid with the proceeds of the same foreign-exchange embezzlement scheme. He admitted that he ultimately received $12 million in bribes for his participation in the embezzlement scheme and laundered that money with a co-defendant through a false-investment scheme. He is expected to be sentenced on January 9, 2019.