National High Court Reopens Case Against Betancourt, Owner of Hawkers, for Money Laundering
The Criminal Court revokes the investigating judge's dismissal and orders the investigation to continue into money laundering linked to a 4,850 million dollar fraud at PDVSA.
National High Court Forces Reopening of Investigation Against Venezuelan Businessman Linked to Hawkers
The Criminal Court of the National High Court has ordered investigating judge Santiago Pedraz to reopen the case against Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, owner of eyewear firm Hawkers, according to El País. The investigating magistrate had dismissed the case in March, along with five other investigated parties, concluding that the facts had already been tried in Venezuela. The Anti-Corruption Prosecution appealed that decision and the magistrates have ruled in its favour.
The investigation focuses on the alleged introduction of money into Europe stemming from a fraud valued at 4,850 million dollars—approximately 3,778 million euros—derived from an alleged loan signed in March 2012 between the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and the private company Administrador Atlantic.
The Anti-Corruption Argument and the Court's Response
The Anti-Corruption Prosecution argued that the dismissal had been "premature" because essential loose ends remained to be clarified before concluding that there had been no money laundering. Specifically, it argued that what had been investigated in Venezuela bore no relation to the acts of corruption between businessmen and officials that were the focus in Spain.
"The Public Prosecutor has justified that the specific acts of corruption in Venezuela which are the subject of these proceedings have not been analysed by the foreign resolution," the Criminal Court's written ruling states, adding that from this "the relevance of the requested measures is inferred".
In March, judge Pedraz had reasoned that the Venezuelan courts were competent to investigate and try the facts committed by its citizens on its territory, and that the ruling handed down there had "international legal force" under the 1994 Spanish-Venezuelan convention on the execution of criminal sentences. The Court now rejects that approach.
The Origin: Operation Bolívar and the "Bolichicos"
The seed of the case was a request from the Zurich Prosecution, on 10 September 2024, asking Spain for information on a matter related to money laundering linked to PDVSA and the Venezuelan National Treasury Office. The proceeding became known as "Operation Bolívar". The Anti-Corruption Prosecution then initiated its own investigation, which remained under seal from June until November of last year.
Among those investigated are, in addition to Betancourt, his cousin Pedro José de Jesús Benito Trebbau, businessman Francisco Convit Guruceaga and three other people: Ana Graciela Convit, Graciela Guruceaga and Lilia-Cristina López. The main implicated parties appear linked to the so-called bolichicos, a group of Venezuelan businessmen who amassed large fortunes during the chavista era between 2009 and 2011.
Bribes of 42 Million Euros and Investments in Spain
The Anti-Corruption Prosecution maintains that "substantial sums of money" have been invested in moveable and immoveable property in Spanish territory, funds brought from Venezuela through the payment of bribes to officials totalling 42 million euros. With that money, companies would have been set up and shares of various kinds acquired.
The Venezuelan officials who received those payments have already acknowledged their involvement to the United States authorities and have been convicted there. Among them, Carmelo Urdaneta, former legal adviser to the Ministry of Energy and Oil, who pleaded guilty before Washington's courts and was sentenced to more than three years' imprisonment. Abraham Ortega, former executive director of financial planning at PDVSA, received a sentence of more than two years.
Witnesses Pending to Testify
One of the Anti-Corruption's central arguments was the "contradiction" that supposed the fact that judge Pedraz had dismissed the case without hearing five witnesses whose testimony he had previously agreed to take via a rogatory commission to the United States. From 9 October the taking of testimony was pending from Luis Carlos de León, former financial director of La Electricidad de Caracas; Abraham Edgardo Ortega Morales; Luis Fernando Vuteff, Argentine businessman convicted in the United States for money laundering; Álvaro Ledo Nass, a lawyer also prosecuted there, and Carmelo Antonio Urdaneta.
"The importance of these testimonies is essential to establish the acts of corruption in Venezuela," the prosecutor noted in his appeal.
The High Court Upholds the Appeal and Demands Investigation Continue
Moreover, the latest report from the Police National's Economic and Tax Crime Unit (UDEF) pointed to the possibility of requesting a rogatory commission to Venezuela to gather information from the investigations opened in that country.
The National High Court has upheld the Anti-Corruption Prosecution's appeal, characterising the dismissal as a "premature discontinuance" and ordering that the investigation be resumed and testimony be taken from the pending witnesses.
Source: El País