Message to INFODIO readers: investigative journalism, which is what this site does, takes lots of time and effort. Visiting media looking for a quick run down on Venezuela's gargantuan corruption, pls have the decency to at least cite the source when plagiarising this site's content without attribution (exhibit Reuters here, exhibit Bloomberg here, exhibit OCCRP here). To all readers: do the right thing, the honest thing, support independent investigative journalism. Note added 28/06/2021: impostors are using INFODIO's former editor's full name, and a fake email address (alek.boyd.arregui at gmail.com) to send copyright infringement claims / take down requests to web hosting companies. The attempt is yet another effort paid by corrupt thugs to erase information about their criminal activities. Infodio.com has no issues with other websites / journalists using / posting information published here, so long as the source is properly cited. Note added 12/06/2026: infodio.com has not created mirror websites / domains and remains totally independent and unrelated to others. Beware of websites using our brand.
As a matter of historical fact, Alex Saab was arrested in Cape Verde on June 12 2020, en route to Iran. His arrest was due to a criminal probe in which he was involved, launched by America's Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI. At the time of arrest, Saab claimed that he was a Venezuelan diplomat.
Believing a word coming from official chavista sources is fraught with risk. Since 1999, chavismo has broken one promise after the next and has failed to deliver on everything it said it would. After all, the one thing it did achieve -which is the complete destruction of Venezuela- was never promised, never a campaign slogan, never a party mantra. The alleged rescinding of Gazprombank Latin America's (read Derwick & Putin's people) participation in Petrozamora might just be one of the latest exhibits of chavismo's mendacity.
Mark Fullbrook -Julito Herrera Velutini's partner in crime in Puerto Rico- was featured in The Sunday Times's "No 10 chief of staff in FBI inquiry over 'election bribe' in Puerto Rico." Fullbrook is challenging the article.
Is the ask that has no reasonable explanation: how come Rafael Ramirez has not been indicted, charged, arrested, extradited, jailed? Anyone that has spent more than five minutes in Venezuela knows the answer. Justice is something reserved for political foes, a tool to be used selectively, when convenient and politically expedient. Ramirez seems to have become a target in some factions within chavismo, but it will be difficult to disentangle mess left behind. For one Nicolas Maduro was sitting across the table in PDVSA's board when Ramirez was looting the company with family and friends.
Someone must have shared "UPDATED - Nervis Villlalobos & Rafael Ramirez' web of corruption exposed" with Tareck el Aissami, who, in developing news, denounced yesterday some (just some) of the participants in a scheme that misappropriated and laundered over $4 billion dollars in 2012. El Aissami mentioned Rafael Ramirez, Luis and Ignacio Oberto, architects behind the theft of course. Nervis Villalobos,
Francisco D'Agostino and Francisco Convit can easily be described as elite members of Venezuela's top corruption echelons. Treasury sanctioned D'Agostino "...for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy and materially assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of PdVSA" (read assisting Alex Saab).
Julio Herrera Velutini has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for his involvement in a bribery scheme that sought to place one of his stooges at the top of Puerto Rico's financial watchdog (Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions or OCIF).
The FBI has just arrested former Governor of Puerto Rico Wanda Vazquez Garced.
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