Post by privateinvestors on Jul 10, 2016 14:46:36 GMT 4
Venezuela Opposition Sets Sights on Stolen $400 Billion
By Carlos Camacho
CARACAS -- Venezuelan opposition lawmakers said Friday some $400 billion were lost to corrupt practices in the importing of foodstuffs and the granting of contracts in the areas of electricity and oil during the 17 years chavismo has been in power and that they are seeking to recover the stolen funds.
“We think we have a good chance of recovering the money,” Deputy Luis Florido, a lawmaker from the Central Venezuela state of Lara told the Latin American Herald Tribune during a Symposium on Anti-Corruption Practices in Argentina, Peru and Venezuela held at the opposition-controlled National Assembly in Caracas on Friday.
So far, the National Assembly is looking at 180 cases which involve 87 former and current Venezuelan officials -- and Argentina, Chavez and the Kirchners are some of the names that keep popping up.
SUITCASE BLUES: TIP OF THE ICEBERG
One of the threads that the Opposition is pulling started in 2007 when Hugo Chavez was President of Venezuela and one of the Kirchners, Nestor, was sitting in the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, trying to get his wife elected as the next President of Argentina -- which happened. On August 4, 2007, a Venezuelan businessman, Guido Antonini, who flew in on a PDVSA jet was caught trying to smuggle a suitcase full of cash into Argentina through the Parque Aereo airport in Buenos Aires. A scandal ensued, engulfing the government of Hugo Chavez, to which Antonini was close.
And, according to the lawmakers, the “suitcase case” or “caso del maletin”, big as it was, was just the tip of the iceberg.
It was lawmaker Florido who gave the figure of $400 billion, of which “$80 billion are in one country, where it arrived through several European banks,” he said. Florido declined to identify the country by name, but sources say its either Argentina or Brazil. Florido will only say that the siphoning occurred mostly using European banks “since US banks are a bit more serious” when it comes to funds of dubious origin.
In order to get the money, Florido and other members of the opposition’s super-majority are pushing new, specific legislation, as well as modifications to existing laws.
Most importanty, Freddy Guevara, a lawmaker for the Sucre municipality in the Greater Caracas, traveled to Argentina, where he signed an agreement with the government of President Mauricio Macri's Anti-Corruption Office (Oficina Anti Corrupcion de Argentina) in Buenos Aires to jointly investigate several high profile cases which occurred during the administrations of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and the Kirchners -- Nestor and Cristina -- in Argentina.
“There’s one of case that involves Maria Gabriela Chavez, one of President Hugo Chavez’s daughters,” Guevara said. “That’s one of several cases we are investigating jointly with Argentina. The anti-corruption office there is getting us the information we need. We tell them, this company, what do you have about it, that agreement, what do you know. And they are obtaining that. The cases involve food imports as well as contracts in the area of energy carried out by state oil company PDVSA in Argentina.”
Argentina, said Guevara, was not conducting any major inquiries into administrative corruption during the Chavez-Kirchner era.
“Now we tell them, give us all the information you have about that food import from Argentina to Venezuela, and they check that information in their Finance and agriculture ministries,” Guevara said.
Venezuela imports about 90% of all of the food it consumes and a large chunk of it comes from Argentina. That’s billions of dollars of beef, milk, grains and cereals that were reportedly imported into Venezuela but such items have been almost impossible to get at the supermarket for years.
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COMMENT: While they are investigating this, why don't they also investigate about the missing presidential plane that Chavez had. And also investigate Ramirez (Ex-PdVSA president)? They will be amazed on what it will be found.
Cheers.
By Carlos Camacho
CARACAS -- Venezuelan opposition lawmakers said Friday some $400 billion were lost to corrupt practices in the importing of foodstuffs and the granting of contracts in the areas of electricity and oil during the 17 years chavismo has been in power and that they are seeking to recover the stolen funds.
“We think we have a good chance of recovering the money,” Deputy Luis Florido, a lawmaker from the Central Venezuela state of Lara told the Latin American Herald Tribune during a Symposium on Anti-Corruption Practices in Argentina, Peru and Venezuela held at the opposition-controlled National Assembly in Caracas on Friday.
So far, the National Assembly is looking at 180 cases which involve 87 former and current Venezuelan officials -- and Argentina, Chavez and the Kirchners are some of the names that keep popping up.
SUITCASE BLUES: TIP OF THE ICEBERG
One of the threads that the Opposition is pulling started in 2007 when Hugo Chavez was President of Venezuela and one of the Kirchners, Nestor, was sitting in the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, trying to get his wife elected as the next President of Argentina -- which happened. On August 4, 2007, a Venezuelan businessman, Guido Antonini, who flew in on a PDVSA jet was caught trying to smuggle a suitcase full of cash into Argentina through the Parque Aereo airport in Buenos Aires. A scandal ensued, engulfing the government of Hugo Chavez, to which Antonini was close.
And, according to the lawmakers, the “suitcase case” or “caso del maletin”, big as it was, was just the tip of the iceberg.
It was lawmaker Florido who gave the figure of $400 billion, of which “$80 billion are in one country, where it arrived through several European banks,” he said. Florido declined to identify the country by name, but sources say its either Argentina or Brazil. Florido will only say that the siphoning occurred mostly using European banks “since US banks are a bit more serious” when it comes to funds of dubious origin.
In order to get the money, Florido and other members of the opposition’s super-majority are pushing new, specific legislation, as well as modifications to existing laws.
Most importanty, Freddy Guevara, a lawmaker for the Sucre municipality in the Greater Caracas, traveled to Argentina, where he signed an agreement with the government of President Mauricio Macri's Anti-Corruption Office (Oficina Anti Corrupcion de Argentina) in Buenos Aires to jointly investigate several high profile cases which occurred during the administrations of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and the Kirchners -- Nestor and Cristina -- in Argentina.
“There’s one of case that involves Maria Gabriela Chavez, one of President Hugo Chavez’s daughters,” Guevara said. “That’s one of several cases we are investigating jointly with Argentina. The anti-corruption office there is getting us the information we need. We tell them, this company, what do you have about it, that agreement, what do you know. And they are obtaining that. The cases involve food imports as well as contracts in the area of energy carried out by state oil company PDVSA in Argentina.”
Argentina, said Guevara, was not conducting any major inquiries into administrative corruption during the Chavez-Kirchner era.
“Now we tell them, give us all the information you have about that food import from Argentina to Venezuela, and they check that information in their Finance and agriculture ministries,” Guevara said.
Venezuela imports about 90% of all of the food it consumes and a large chunk of it comes from Argentina. That’s billions of dollars of beef, milk, grains and cereals that were reportedly imported into Venezuela but such items have been almost impossible to get at the supermarket for years.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
COMMENT: While they are investigating this, why don't they also investigate about the missing presidential plane that Chavez had. And also investigate Ramirez (Ex-PdVSA president)? They will be amazed on what it will be found.
Cheers.
