The Public Ministry opened an investigation to determine an alleged corruption plot in Carbones del Zulia (Carbozulia), a state company attached to the Ministry of Industry.
Although the investigation was opened in 2021 (MP-120-821-2021), new elements were recorded by the lawyer and businessman Juan Pablo Montiel Almeida on June 26. Given this circumstance, the Public Ministry recently accumulated in a single file the investigation that rests in the Fiftieth Prosecutor’s Office, according to official letter No. 24-FS-1817.
Thus, the investigation is based on the elements provided by Montiel Almeida, contained in a document where it is requested to specify the role played by the president of Carbozulia, Francisco Javier Aguilera Castro.
This person was removed from his position on March 15, that is, two days before the Anti-Corruption Operation began, aimed, among others, at sanctioning acts of corruption detected in three state companies: PDVSA, Corporación Venezolana de Guayana and Cartones de Venezuela. .
The complaint document states that Aguilera Castro allegedly signed contracts “for the exploitation of coal activity in Zulia, with legally non-existent companies.”
One of these companies is called Operaciones Mineras y Servicios Lacustres CA, which billed eleven million dollars since 2018 “without this representing any benefit to the State.”
The complainant refers that the machinery used by Mining Operations is not his property, but he simulated such quality. Despite this, he charged the State $45,000 a month for equipment that did not come to provide services in the exploitation of coal.
Montiel Almeida maintains that the former president of Carbozulia would allegedly be involved in the crimes of appropriation or diversion of public assets, conspiracy to enter into contracts, aggravated own corruption and illicit enrichment.
