In the Money Flight case, Álvaro Ledo Nass acknowledged in US courts having received $11.5 million in bribes while he held various high-level positions at the state oil company PDVSA
Former PDVSA state oil company official Álvaro Ledo Nass pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to money laundering charges in connection with conspiring to siphon hundreds of millions from state coffers through corrupt deals with foreign exchange. Nass is one of those involved in Operation Money Flight, an extensive investigation carried out by the United States.
As part of his plea agreement, Nass acknowledged this Wednesday, March 29 of receiving $11.5 million in bribes while holding various high-level positions at Petróleos de Venezuela held until 2015.
“I knew what I did,” Nass said in proceedings before Judge Patricia Seitz, expressing remorse for her actions. “I came here to admit my mistakes and take responsibility before the courts of the United States.”
Nass, 43, last February became the latest of several dozen former Venezuelan officials to be charged or convicted in the US as part of Operation Money Flight, an extensive multi-year investigation which seeks to unravel how Venezuelans with inside information stole billions in oil wealth from their country.
Many of the people involved in this massive corruption scheme moved or invested their stolen wealth in real estate in South Florida, indicated the agency PA.
President Nicolás Maduro this month ordered measures against corruption within PDVSA that has led to several arrests of top officials and businessmen accused of stealing oil shipments. The accusations led to the resignation of the oil minister, Tareck El Aissami, a key figure in the government’s efforts to evade US oil sanctions.
Nass’s crimes predate the latest purge, yet they are symptomatic of the same bribery that experts say has proliferated in Venezuela’s state oil industry during more than two decades of socialist rule.
As part of his plea agreement, Nass admitted to accepting bribes in exchange for greenlighting a 2014 counterfeit currency transaction whereby several businessmen agreed to lend PDVSA bolivars at the black market exchange rate widely used in Venezuela. Then the oil company paid off the loan less than a few months later. at an artificially high official exchange rate, allowing the experts to make a massive profit.
Attorney Kurt Lunkenheimer, a federal government assistant, and Justice Department trial attorney Paul Hayden are overseeing the case, which began when Nass, who had been living in Spain, came to the US to cooperate with the police investigation.
Nass, as secretary to the PDVSA board of directors and later general counsel, was able to influence decisions within the once-important oil industry.
Nass’s parents said they were devastated. “We trust that he will overcome this sad period and overcome the mistakes that have affected him and our family so much,” his parents said in a statement through the Caracas-based lawyer, Jesús Loreto.
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