Former vice president of Venezuela, Tareck El Aissami has been placed under arrest by the authorities on charges of embezzling up to US$21 billion from Petróleos de Venezuela, the state-owned oil and natural gas firm (PDVSA).
In the administrations of both current President Nicolás Maduro and former President Hugo Chávez, Tareck El Aissami also occupied a number of cabinet roles.
In addition to him, businessman Sarmark Lopez and Simón Alejandro Zerpa, the former head of the National Development Fund and minister of economy and finance, were detained by police, according to Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab.
The three are facing charges of treason, appropriation or diversion of public assets, and money laundering, among other crimes.
An examination into the actions of top officials at three state organizations, notably the country’s oil and gas corporation PDVSA, revealed that they used their positions to undertake unlawful oil transactions and subsequently laundered the revenues through cryptocurrency and real estate.
A total of 54 persons have been charged in the PDVSA investigation, including other top executives.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tareck El Aissami in 2017 for having “a significant role in international narcotics trafficking.” He allegedly oversaw or owned narcotics shipments weighing more than 1,000 kg from Venezuela to Mexico and the United States.
