MIAMI (AP) — A former top official at Venezuela’s state oil company pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Miami to money laundering in connection with a plot to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from the country’s coffers through of currency transactions.
As part of his plea agreement, Álvaro Ledo Nass admitted that he received $11.5 million in bribes while holding various high-level positions at Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, until 2015.
“He knew what he was doing,” Ledo Nass told Judge Patricia Seitz, expressing regret for his actions. “I came here to admit my mistakes and take responsibility before the courts of the United States.”
In February, Ledo Nass, 43, became the latest of several dozen former Venezuelan officials to be charged or convicted in the United States as part of Operation Money Flight, an investigation seeking to unravel how Venezuelan insiders stole thousands of billions of dollars in his country’s oil wealth.
Many of the people involved in the plot moved or invested the money they stole in real estate in South Florida.
This month, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered a crackdown on corruption within PDVSA, prompting a series of arrests of top officials and businessmen accused of stealing oil shipments. The allegations prompted the resignation of the country’s oil czar, Tareck El Aissami, a key figure in the government’s attempts to evade US oil sanctions.
As part of his plea bargain, Nass admitted taking bribes in exchange for green-lighting a 2014 bogus currency transaction in which several businessmen agreed to lend PDVSA bolívares at the black market exchange rate widely used in Venezuela. The oil company repaid the loan a few months later at an artificially high official exchange rate, allowing insiders to make huge profits.
Assistant US Attorney Kurt Lunkenheimer and Justice Department trial attorney Paul Hayden are overseeing the case, which began when Nass, who had been living in Spain, came to the United States to cooperate with the police investigation.
Nass, as secretary of the PDVSA board of directors and later general consultant, was able to influence decisions within the company.
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Associated Press writer Regina García Cano contributed to this report from Caracas, Venezuela.
