Syrian-Venezuelan businessman Naman Wakil was scheduled to go on trial in federal court in Miami in October 2023, but died. He faced charges of paying millions in bribes to Venezuelan officials in exchange for securing government contracts between 2010 and 2017, and investing part of his illegal profits in luxury properties.
Naman Wakil, a businessman accused of moving millions of dollars into the Miami real estate market from his corrupt dealings with the Venezuelan government, died at his Coconut Grove home in 2023 ahead of a criminal trial in federal court. But that didn’t stop prosecutors from investigating the ill-gotten gains he made paying bribes to Venezuelan officials for food contracts, according to court records.
This month, U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian ordered that $21,248,434 in foreign bribery and money laundering proceeds be turned over to the federal government. Under a civil settlement, the government will keep 90% ($19,123,591) and Wakil’s wife will receive the remaining 10% ($2,124,843).
The agreement between prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami and Wakil’s wife, Ingrid Maria Sayegh Sakkal, was reached in December after his attorney, Howard Srebnick, informed the wife that it was in her best interest, according to court records show. Srebnick was also Wakil’s defense attorney before his death on July 24, 2023, review Miami Herald.
Wakil, who was born in Syria and raised in Venezuela before settling in Miami more than a decade ago, was a rags-to-riches businessman who profited from his corrupt contracts with the Venezuelan government, authorities say. Americans.
The Syrian-Venezuelan businessman was scheduled to go to trial in federal court in Miami in October 2023. He faced charges of paying millions in bribes to Venezuelan officials in exchange for securing government contracts between 2010 and 2017, and investing part of his illegal profits in luxury properties, including his family’s condo at the Residences at Vizcaya on Hiawatha Avenue in Coconut Grove, as well as high-rise units on Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami and at the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach.
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Wakil, 62, died in his sleep at his Coconut Grove home, where he had been living while free on a $50 million personal bond and a $21.3 million cash bond roughly equal to his sentence. confiscation approved by Judge Damian on January 7.
He also faced charges of corruption and foreign money trafficking in Miami because authorities say he invested part of his illegal profits from the Venezuelan government in the United States. His assets totaled more than $50 million and, in addition to lavish real estate, included a yacht and an airplane.
*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 is being published taking into consideration the threats and limits that have consequently been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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