Luis Fernando Vuteff, son-in-law of former metropolitan mayor Antonio Ledezma, was accused by the United States of being involved in a scheme to launder 1.2 billion dollars from the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). He was arrested in Switzerland in June of this year, after violating his probation in Spain, and extradited at the request of the US two months later.
Argentine businessman Luis Augusto Vuteff, son-in-law of former mayor Antonio Ledezma, was released on parole this Tuesday, October 25, after paying $200,000 bail imposed by a court in Miami, United States, where he is being investigated for alleged money laundering.
The information was confirmed by the journalist from Associated Press (AP) Joshua Goodman through his Twitter account. The businessman paid the bail in a check on October 24. Vuteff is being investigated by the US due to his alleged role in a network to launder 1,200 million dollars that would have been fraudulently obtained from Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
The 12th of July, Antonio Ledezma’s son-in-law and fellow businessman Ralph Steinman were charged in the US for this corruption scheme, alleging that both from approximately December 2014 to at least August 2018 “conspired with others to launder the proceeds of an illegal bribery scheme . using the US financial system as well as various bank accounts located abroad.
If found guilty, they can face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Luis Fernando Vuteff was arrested in Spain in the middle October 2018 in the midst of Operation Carabela against money laundering from corruption in Venezuela, as reported then in the press of that country. The action also led to the capture of the former Vice Minister of Electric Power Nervis Villalobos and the seizure of more than 130 properties in Madrid and Marbella valued at more than 72 million euros.
Vuteff has Argentine nationality and is the partner of Antonietta Ledezma Capriles, daughter of the former mayor and his wife Mitzy, and has been the most active family figure in defending her father’s cause.
Subsequently, the Spanish justice ordered preventive detention for him and Villalobos. After being granted parole while facing proceedings against him, he illegally left for Switzerland where he was arrested again on the 25th. June 2022, already facing an extradition request to the US. On August 19 he was sent to that country.
The US authorities assure that at least $600 million were obtained by making use of the exchange control regime in Venezuela, an instrument that allowed the value of the initial investment to be increased, and that the defendants had plans to embezzle at least another $600 million more.
Post Views:
417
