Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures after the National Electoral Council announced the results of the voting on election day in Venezuela on May 20, 2018 (AFP / Juan Barreto)
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro is a principal suspect in a U.S. investigation into a scheme that’s embezzled more than $1 billion from the country’s state-owned oil company, the Miami Herald reported.
Maduro, his three stepsons and other Venezuelan government officials are being investigated for links to a scheme to launder funds from Petroleos de Venezuela SA, known as PDVSA, the newspaper reported, citing sources familiar with the investigation that it didn’t identify.
Venezuela’s leader isn’t mentioned in the complaint by name, but there are references to him as "Venezuelan Official 2,” according to the Miami Herald.
Officials with the Venezuelan information ministry didn’t immediately respond to requests for an official comment.
His stepsons were described by sources as having received an estimated $200 million in funds stolen from Venezuela, wired to a European bank in late 2014 and early 2015. The deposits were among 10 wire transfers totaling about $600 million, according to a Homeland Security Investigations criminal complaint, the report said.
Bloomberg News reported on July 26 that private banker Matthias Krull, who until last month was one of Julius Baer Group Ltd.’s wealth managers for Venezuela, was arrested as part of the same investigation, which Swiss authorities are also working on.
Switzerland in 2016 seized $118 million in bank assets linked to a Venezuelan businessman who has admitted to bribing PDVSA officials to steer about $1 billion in energy-supply contracts.
