Opposition asks to investigate Venezuelans linked to PDVSA who had millions in Credit Suisse

The Venezuelan opposition asked to investigate about 20 Venezuelans linked to the state oil company PDVSA, who had accounts in the Swiss bank Credit Suisse worth at least US$273 million, according to a journalistic investigation.

“The country has to know that the tragedy we are experiencing today is the product of the fact that the money, which was to solve Venezuela’s problems and to develop the country, was stolen. They are the corrupt ones who must be pointed out and at some point there will have to be justice”, expressed former deputy Ismael García, according to a press release from the opposition bloc.

Also, former deputy Julio Montoya asked the anti-Chavistas to open an investigation “total” about the route that bankers, businessmen and officials of the Venezuelan Government took to “launder money and that today they have subjected Venezuela to misery”.

This petition was joined by the opponent Elijah Bessiswho proposed asking for help from all countries that fight against corruption to “rescue the money and that it be returned to the Venezuelans.”

Bessis indicated that the opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s representation abroad should join this investigation by receiving information from Venezuelans “holders of bank accounts in other countries, one that they cannot justify“, as well as “make it public knowledge to Venezuelans and the world.”

A journalistic investigation unveiled on Sunday revealed that more than 20 Venezuelans linked to PDVSA, including Nervis Villalobosformer Deputy Minister of Energy of Hugo Chavezhad Swiss bank accounts Credit Suisse worth at least US$273 million.

Leaked bank details published by the international press organization Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) through various international media, including the “Miami Herald”show that Villalobos opened an account in September 2011 and in less than two years he already accumulated assets of 9.5 million Swiss francs (US$ 10.3 million at current exchange rates).

The former Venezuelan deputy minister is being investigated in Spain in a case for the alleged laundering in that country of funds from the looting of PDVSA.

The same day he opened his Villalobos account, Luis Carlos de Leon Perezformer director of Finance for Electricidad de Caracas, opened another in the same bank, where he came to own assets of at least 22.6 million Swiss francs (US$ 24.5 million), according to the Miami newspaper.

The information about these two former Venezuelan leaders is part of a data leak of more than 18,000 bank accounts from the 1940s until well into 2010 to which the German newspaper had access “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, which he shared with OCCRP and 46 other international media.

The journalists affirm that there were 16 accounts with at least 162.9 million Swiss francs (US$ 176 million at current exchange rates) whose owners were seven people who were “convicted or accused of being involved” in a bribery scheme of PDVSA.