A Panamanian company whose sole discretion is owned by Venezuela’s ambassador to Britain, Rocío del Valle Maneiro, signed a contract in 2012 to provide consulting services and collect up to 15 million dollars (14 euros) from the conspiracy. ministers are investigating the looting of 2,000 million dollars from the main state company of the Latin American country, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (Pdvsa), according to a confidential report from the Financial Intelligence Unit of Andorra (Uifand) to which EL PAÍS had access.

When he signed the agreement, the diplomat was head of Venezuela’s embassy in China. Position he held between 2004 and 2013.

Some thirty members of the looting network were charged in Andorra – where they hid their loot thanks to a veil of banking secrecy that existed until 2017 – for collecting bribes from foreign, mainly Chinese, companies, which then reaped multimillion-dollar rewards from the oil company. company. The looters operated between 2007 and 2012.

The instrumental Panamanian company (without activity) Valden Overseas SA, represented by the ambassador, and in which his son Juan Páez Maneiro controlled 100% of the capital in 2013, was the vehicle through which diplomats signed the agreement. The ambassador was employed by the Panamanian company High Advisory and Consulting SA, which is headed by businessman and alleged perpetrator of a corrupt organization, Luis Mariano Rodríguez Cabello. The contract is valid for two years.

While it is not known how much Del Valle Maneiro earned for his alleged consulting services, the documents reveal that a Panamanian company linked to the diplomat issued seven invoices in two days in May 2012 totaling nine million dollars (8.4 euros). ) to the front man of the PDVSA looters. “Payments for business management consulting services in China,” including invoices from companies over which senior officials have full authority.

Researchers from Uifand, a public body in the Pyrenean country that fights money laundering and investigates the actions of energy looters, questioned in a confidential report, dated November 2022, the veracity of Del Valle Maneiro’s work. And they attribute these accusations to corrupt mechanisms.”[El contrato] “This agreement does not specify the modalities and conditions of consulting services to be provided,” said the agents, who called the agreement “ambiguous and imprecise.”

Uifand also stated that Del Valle Maneiro, as revealed by this newspaper, managed four accounts at Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) totaling four million dollars (3.7 euros). And to cover the trail of suspected funds, he used a constellation of Panamanian companies he founded Ad hoc by the Bank. In his maneuver, the ambassador then transferred, in 2013, 1.7 million to accounts in Switzerland and Miami in the name of one of his sons, according to investigators.

The diplomat’s lawyer in Andorra, Jordi Segura, denied there was any irregularity in the origin of the funds that Del Valle Maneiro deposited with BPA.

Like his lawyer, the ambassador always defended the legality of his actions. When he testified as a defendant before a court in Andorra, in September 2018, he confirmed that the money he put into the BPA came from the 2011 sale of his inheritance – in which he was among 14 beneficiaries – of 19,000 hectares of land that he has. my family is in the state of Sucre, Venezuela.

He alleged that he collected five million after the transaction and that the “buyer” was Diego Salazar, a member of the network and cousin of the former Chavista Minister of Energy, former president of PDVSA and former ambassador to the UN, Rafael Ramírez. “I have never been in any society or company. This goes against the function that I have carried out throughout my life, 38 years of service. I am a career civil servant, I have a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree […]. “I have never acted as an intermediary or assistant or anything like Diego Salazar in any company or government… I have committed the sin of being a lifelong friend of Diego’s family and selling my inheritance rights to him,” the diplomat defended the five people. years ago, in front of the instructor.

When asked if he knew Rodríguez Cabello, the ambassador said yes. And he pointed out that the alleged ringleader – who moved 1.144 million through 11 opaque accounts at BPA – “was part of Diego’s team”, referring to Salazar, who earned 154 million in Chinese company contracts.

Andorran investigators linked Del Valle Maneiro’s income to the so-called Large Volume, a 20,000 million dollar (18,597 euro) agreement signed in 2010 between Venezuela and China that allowed companies from the Asian giant to obtain contracts from the Latin American country. The group allegedly took advantage of the initiative to get businessmen who wanted the awards to pay cash.

1.6 million salary and extra productivity for high-ranking officials from Caracas

Venezuela’s ambassador to the UK is not the only official from a Latin American country paid by the corrupt organization. Caracas’ former secretary of civic security, Ramón Elías Morales Rossi, collected a total of $1.6 million from looters’ plots between 2014 and 2015, according to documents to which this newspaper had access.

Through the instrumental company Laurentis Group Inc, the former high-ranking Caracas official signed a contract with plot leader Rodríguez Cabello’s firm. In force between 2011 and 2019, the agreement stated that Morales Rossi would receive 300,000 per year during this period. And this opens up the opportunity to gain a maximum productivity of $500,000 per year.

The former Caracas citizen security secretary issued two invoices between 2014 and 2015 totaling 1.6 million plots with concepts such as “2013 salaries” and “productivity bonuses.”

To justify his income, Morales Rossi stated to the BPA that the money was consideration for his work as a consultant at the business advisory firm Inverdt CA. Behind this company is Caracas engineer José Enrique Luongo Rotundo, who is on trial in Andorra for being part of the network.

Andorran investigators again questioned the contract of the former top official. And they argue that there is no evidence to prove the veracity of their alleged work. “There are no signed documents identifying the projects or services provided by Morales Rossi,” Uifand’s agent said.

This newspaper has tried but failed to obtain Ramón Elías Morales Rossi’s version.

Formed by more than thirty former officials of powerful state companies and former Chavista leaders, among them the strongmen of former President Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), former Venezuelan Deputy Minister of Energy Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado, the network looted PDVSA devises elaborate schemes in which he receives commissions of up to 10% from entrepreneurs. Companies that pay bribes, especially Chinese companies, then get energy contracts.

To cover the money trail, the organization hid its loot through a network of obscure accounts at BPA, 7,400 kilometers from Caracas. Funds flow through thirty companies in Switzerland and Belize.

In order not to arouse suspicion and cover the theft with legality, the income was disguised under the umbrella of consulting work that investigators said did not exist. An Andorran court linked money laundering in banking institutions to members of the organization. And the BPA, a small Pyrenean state entity that hosts flows of dirty money, was intervened in 2015 by this country’s authorities over alleged money laundering by criminal groups.

investigacion@elpais.es

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