The Economic and Financial Crimes Unit (UDEF) of the Spanish Police will investigate the alleged payments that the Chavista regime of Venezuela made former leaders of the political formation Podemos such as Juan Carlos Monedero and Carolina Bescansa, and that have been revealed by former Venezuelan general Hugo Armando Carvajal, known as El Pollo Carvajal.
As the Spanish newspaper El Mundo has advanced and legal sources have confirmed to Efe, the reinforcement judge of the Central Court of Instruction number 6, JoaquÃn Gadea, has ordered the UDEF to investigate the transfers of funds from Venezuela – a total of US $ 142,000 (125,507 euros) – to the founders of Podemos Carolina Bescansa, Jorge Lago and Ariel Jerez, through the company Viu Comunicaciones.
It also requests the UDEF to carry out procedures aimed at ascertaining the presence of Monedero in Venezuela, as well as the accreditation of its alleged charges through the Venezuelan state oil company (PDVSA).
The magistrate has adopted this decision in a car after the former head of Venezuelan intelligence made these revelations after being arrested in September in Madrid after remaining unaccounted for to avoid being extradited to the United States.
In addition to tracking the bank movements of Bescansa, Lago and Jerez, the judge has also asked the Police for a study of the companies Viu Comunicaciones and Viu Europa, all within the framework of proceedings on the financing of Podemos filed in 2016 and that they were reopened upon learning of Carvajal’s revelations about the perception of funds by former leaders of that party
According to El Mundo, in its last statement on October 27, El Pollo – pending extradition to the United States for drug trafficking offenses – assured that both companies were used as a cover to finance Podemos.
Likewise, the judge also orders the Udef a series of proceedings in relation to Monedero.
Carvajal has assured about him in the National Court that he received funds from the Government of Nicolás Maduro for fictitious advisory work channeled through the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
In this regard, El Mundo points out that to prove his accusations, Carvajal sent the court a document that was intended to raise the approval of funds for PDVSA’s participation in the XXI World Petroleum Congress in Moscow to the president of Venezuela.
In that document, dated October 16, 2016, the company Viu Comunicaciones was hired, which according to the former head of Venezuelan intelligence would have been used instrumentally for the irregular financing of the Podemos party.
The hiring was carried out, according to that documentation, for an amount of US $ 532,520 (470,618 euros at the current exchange rate) for everything related to the participation of the state oil company PDVSA in the aforementioned congress, including US $ 110,000 (97,213 euros) for the management direct from Viu Comunicaciones.
Being subcontracted for US $ 280,520 (184,288 euros) the company Prodiseño and destined US $ 142,000 to the sociologists Ariel Jerez, Carolina Bescansa and Jorge Lago.
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