CARACAS: Government and police sources have
told Spanish newspaper El Mundo that about half a dozen former high-ranking
officials in the late Hugo Chavez’s socialist government were among those
allegedly involved in a money-laundering scheme at the heart of a growing
scandal involving a European bank.
“El Mundo” that at least three former deputy ministers, the former
intelligence chief and oil industry executives were involved in a money
laundering scheme at the Bank of Andorra, a private bank in the small European
country of Andorra. These include former deputy energy minister Nervis Gerardo
Villalobos and former intelligence vice minister Alcides Rondón. The men
allegedly laundered money they received from kickbacks.
Last week the U.S. Treasury department
named the Andorra bank a “primary money-laundering concern,” and accused the
bank managers of accepting “exorbitant commissions to process transactions
related to Venezuelan third-party money launderers. This activity involved the
development of shell companies and complex financial products to siphon off
funds from Venezuela’s public oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).” The
bank processed approximately $2 billion in transactions related to this money
laundering scheme, according to the US Treasury.
The bank’s president has been arrested, and
government-appointed administrators in the Spanish unit of the bank have
suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy protection.