Written by Mayella Armas and Daisy Buitrago
CARACAS (Reuters) – Former Venezuelan oil minister Tarek el Aissami, once one of the most influential officials in President Nicolás Maduro's government, has been arrested in a corruption investigation at state oil company PDVSA. The Attorney General announced on Tuesday.
Attorney General Tarek Saab told a news conference that former finance minister Simon Zerpa and businessman Salmarc López were also detained.
El Aissami surprisingly resigned in March 2023 amid a wide-ranging corruption investigation ordered by President Maduro, which had focused primarily on wrongdoing at PDVSA. El Aissami has not spoken publicly for more than a year.
The three men are charged with treason, money laundering, conspiracy and misappropriation of public funds, Saab said.
According to the attorney general, the case involves a network of PDVSA executives who used their positions to carry out illegal activities, including those involving virtual currencies.
“The actions of these three actors constitute an economic conspiracy,” Saab said.
More than 54 Venezuelans have been charged so far in the investigation, Saab said, with arrest warrants pending for 17 more and five people who have agreed to act as protected witnesses.
Photos shared by Saab's office show Zerpa being led away in handcuffs on the street, while El Aissami and López are seen being held in solitary confinement by balaclava-wearing officials. There was also a photo of him being taken to
All have been under U.S. sanctions since 2017, with El Aissami and Lopez facing drug charges.
Saab said El Aissami used the illegal funds for construction work on his private residence and requested the money be transferred to foreign bank accounts, while other suspects arrested in the case used the funds for political campaigns. It is said that he did.
Saab said El Aissami and his allies have used U.S. sanctions as an excuse to directly control oil shipments, thus avoiding the transfer of funds through the country's central bank and allowing them to speculate in Venezuela's currency market. He added that he is doing so.
By the end of 2022, PDVSA had amassed tens of billions of dollars in commercial receivables tied to dozens of lesser-known intermediaries that replaced large clients shut out by U.S. sanctions.
The change in customers resulted in unpaid oil cargoes, leaving a huge hole in PDVSA's accounts.
(Reporting by Mayela Armas and Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Leslie Adler)
