Miami Real Estate Used In Venezuelan Money Laundering Scheme

MIAMI, FL — At least two people were taken into custody this week and six others were being sought in connection with a billion-dollar Venezuelan money laundering scheme that could reach to the highest levels of the troubled government. The scheme used Miami real estate and investment schemes to launder embezzled money from Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA. The scheme involved former oil officials, professional money launderers and members of the Venezuelan elite known as “boliburgués.”

The Miami Herald reported Friday night that the investigation reaches to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his three stepsons, who allegedly accepted $200 million in stolen PDVSA funds that were wired to a European bank between late 2014 and early 2015.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami did not immediately comment on the report.

The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Benjamin Greenberg of Miami, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Mark Selby of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations’ Miami Field Office.

"The conspiracy in this case allegedly began in December 2014 with a currency exchange scheme that was designed to embezzle around $600 million from PDVSA — obtained through bribery and fraud — and the defendants’ efforts to launder a portion of the proceeds of that scheme," according to federal prosecutors in Miami.

"By May 2015, the conspiracy had allegedly doubled in amount to $1.2 billion embezzled from PDVSA," prosecutors added, noting that PDVSA is Venezuela’s primary source of income and foreign currency.

Forty-four-year-old Matthias Krull, a German national and Panamanian resident, was arrested in Miami and 45-year-old Gustavo Adolfo Hernandez Frieri, Colombian national and naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested in Sicily. They were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Still at large were Venezuelan nationals Francisco Convit Guruceaga, 40; Jose Vincente Amparan Croquer, aka, “Chente,” 44; Carmelo Urdaneta Aqui, 44 and Abraham Eduardo Ortega, 51.

Thirty-nine-year-old Portuguese national Hugo Andre Ramalho Gois and 40-year-old Uruguayan national Marcelo Federico Gutierrez Acosta y Lara also were being sought for their alleged participation in the scheme.

"The complaint alleges that surrounding and supporting these false investment laundering schemes are complicit money managers, brokerage firms, banks and real estate investment firms in the United States and elsewhere operating as a network of professional money launderers," according to federal prosecutors in Miami.

This case was investigated by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force “Operation Money Flight,” a partnership among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The task force was formed to identify, investigate and prosecute high-level members of drug trafficking enterprises through the combined expertise of federal, state and local law enforcement.

Prosecutors said that the Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs played a key role in the investigation while investigators were assisted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom and Italian, Spanish and Maltese law enforcement authorities.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks to the media at the United Nations. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.