Wakil was scheduled to go on trial in federal court in October on charges that he paid millions in bribes to Venezuelan officials in exchange for government contracts between 2010 and 2017, and invested part of his illegal proceeds in luxury properties, including his family’s condo at Residences at Vizcaya on Hiawatha Avenue in Coconut Grove, as well as high-rise units on Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami and the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles. Beach. “Mr. Wakil passed away in his sleep yesterday morning,” his lawyer, Howard Srebnick, said Tuesday. Wakil died at his home, where he was living while out on bail awaiting trial. Relatives have not released details about the businessman’s cause of death, but the charge against him will likely be dismissed, as is often the case when a defendant dies.
Wakil, 62, faced federal charges because authorities say he invested part of his illegal profits in the United States. His net worth was over $50 million and, in addition to luxury real estate, included a yacht and a plane. Wakil is among several members of Venezuela’s politically connected business class accused in a Miami federal court of exploiting intimate relationships with top officials in the governments of former President Hugo Chávez and current President Nicolás Maduro to enrich themselves through inflated government contracts, lucrative loans and currency exchange schemes. Most of his money ended up in Swiss and foreign bank accounts, along with real estate investments in South Florida. The embezzlement of billions of dollars from Venezuela’s socialist government, particularly from its main source of income, the national oil company known as PDVSA, has contributed to the South American nation’s drastic economic collapse, forcing millions of people to flee to neighboring countries and to the United States, US authorities say.
Wakil, a Syrian-born businessman, gained notoriety in 2016 when he appeared in a McClatchy series on the Panama Papers scandal that exposed secretive shell companies established in offshore bank accounts by the wealthy clients of a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The accounts were set up to help the law firm’s clients hide money, make foreign investments and evade taxes, according to McClatchy’s series. In the spring of 2015, according to a McClatchy story, a Miami-based Citigroup banker emailed the Panamanian law firm with a query about a wealthy client who needed help. Leaked emails from Mossack Fonseca identified that client as Wakil, a globe-trotting businessman worth approximately $400 million with business interests in both North Carolina and Miami. He wanted to reduce his US tax liability and protect his assets from creditors, the memo from his lawyer says.
The Panamanian law firm proposed to create a series of trusts and offshore companies for the client. A year later, Wakil became embroiled in a controversy that linked him to a Venezuelan general in an alleged procurement scam that reportedly netted $76 million. In 2019, Bloomberg described Wakil as a former street vendor who amassed great wealth by purchasing discounted meat products that were being sold at greatly inflated prices to the Venezuelan government. Wakil, who was born in Aleppo, immigrated to Venezuela and grew up in the Petare district of Caracas, one of the largest slums in the world. He went from selling goods on the streets to immense wealth.
According to the findings of a Venezuelan audit commission, he had a close relationship with Carlos Osorio, a major general in the Venezuelan army who oversaw billions of dollars in food contracts as the nation’s food minister.
