OFAC removed Francisco D’Agostino, Alessandro Bazzoni and their associated companies from the list of those sanctioned by Washington, including Elemento Oil & Gas, which according to what was stated participated in a network of furtive marketing of Venezuelan oil through Mexico.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury removed the company Elemento Oil & Gas and its owners Alessandro Bazzoni and Francisco Javier D’Agostino Casado from its sanctions list.
In a statement from OFAC issued this Monday, January 13, was also removed from the list of restrictive measures for other related companies such as D’Agostino and Company and Element Capital Advisors Limited.
In January 2021, OFAC sanctioned several individuals and entities, including Alessandro Bazzoni, Francisco Javier D’Agostino Casado, and Elemento Oil & Gas Ltd, for evading sanctions related to the Venezuelan oil sector.
According to what was stated at the time, these people and companies carried out activities such as the purchase and resale of PDVSA oil, the use of front companies to evade financial controls, and the transportation of crude oil to international buyers.
In June 2023, OFAC had also withdrawn sanctions against the Swiss company Swissoil Trading SA, allegedly related to the corruption scheme at Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa); as well as the owner of this company, Philipp Paul Vartan Apikian, owner and director, they also removed from that list.
Since January 19, 2021, sanctions have been imposed on Swissoil for being part of a network that was used to evade sanctions against Venezuela’s oil sector. The sanctions, at that time, included Alessandro Bazzoni, Francisco Javier D’Agostino Casado (brother-in-law of Henry Ramos Allup), Philipp Paul Vartan Apikian, Elemento LTD and Swissoil Trading SA
According to the State Department, these people and companies had conspired together with Oil Minister Tareck el Aissami, currently detained in Venezuela for the Pdvsa Cripto corruption scheme, “to negotiate the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars of Venezuelan oil.”
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*Journalism in Venezuela is carried out in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments in place to punish the word, especially the laws “against hate”, “against fascism” and “against the blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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