Article author:
Associated Press
Joshua Goodman
Cleveland (AP) — Venezuela's former ally of the late President Hugo Chavez was guilty of a $ 3.8 million bribe in Miami Thursday. Admitted. Steering a favorable oil contract from a foreign joint venture to Venezuelan socialist government and military officials.
Jhonnathan Marin suddenly resigned during a major cleanup of state-owned oil giant PDVSA and was mayor of Guanta's port city for almost a decade until 2017, when he fled Venezuela. The government of Nicolas Maduro, the successor to Chavez, later ordered him to be arrested on suspicion of corruption and banned him from running for public office.
He surrendered quietly in Miami in April. This is a single count of committing a crime against the United States and can result in imprisonment of up to five years. According to court records, he was released on the same day with a $ 100,000 bond.
As part of a judicial transaction signed Thursday, he agreed to work fully with a federal agent investigating widespread corruption in Venezuela.
According to a statement accompanying the judicial transaction, Marin is an employee of the PDVSA joint venture with Chevron, as well as Europe, Russia and China.
A portion of the proceeds of the bribery scheme was transferred to a South Florida bank account for the benefit of Marin and his family. Illegal funds were partially used to purchase real estate in South Florida and use private jets.
There is no indication in the complaint that any of PDVSA's foreign partners have participated in or knew about the bribery scheme.
However, between 2015 and 2017, Marin directed Petrosedeno's Chief Procurement Officer. Petrosedeno was an oil company owned by PDVSA with Total in France and Equinor in Norway at the time, and ordered companies belonging to his unnamed company to be given tens of millions of dollars in contracts. Conspirator.
Marin, 43, was an early supporter of the Chavez Fifth Republic movement, and in 2008, the gateway to the world's largest oil reserves and about half of them, the Orinoco Oil Belt. Elected to be the mayor of Guanta, a city in the city. Current production in Venezuela.
He is a former federal prosecutor in Miami, represented by Michael Nadler, who made a name for himself in the pursuit of corruption in Maduro's inner circle.
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