A Spanish firm paid 7.4 million to a former Chávez deputy minister after receiving works in Algeria and Chile

Former Venezuelan Deputy Minister of Energy and Oil Nervis Villalobos, in a file image.

The Basque energy company Elecnor allegedly paid 7.4 million euros to former Venezuelan vice minister Nervis Villalobos after winning the awards for the Souk Tleta water supply plant in Algeria and the Ancoa-Alto Jahuel power transmission line in Chile, according to the documents. to which EL PAÍS has had access.

These are three invoices issued between 2010 and 2012 by the former Chavista leader from a Maltese company to the Spanish company for alleged advisory services.

And that they are part of a judicial investigation in Andorra on a network of former Venezuelan officials who charged commissions to companies in exchange for awards.

The plot hid its loot, of 2,000 million, in the small Pyrenean principality.

Elecnor received about 375 million euros for the tenders in Algeria and Chile, which were awarded in 2008 and 2009.

Villalobos, who was Vice Minister of Energy of the Government of Hugo Chávez between 2004 and 2006, was arrested in Madrid in 2017 at the request of the United States for integrating an alleged money laundering and corruption scheme through the American office of the main Venezuelan state company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA).

And he faces corruption charges in courts in the United States, Spain and Andorra.

The Central Court number 2 of the National Court has been investigating him since 2017 for the alleged collection of commissions to obtain awards in Venezuela for the Asturian company Duro Felguera.

And the Central number 3 is investigating an alleged cause of money laundering that also splashes on the former minister.

Villalobos charged Elecnor through its Malta company Merol Ganem Developments Limited, according to the invoices.

And he paid his fees to one of the 12 accounts he managed until 2015 in the Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA), an entity intervened this last year for an alleged crime of money laundering.

For the advisory work of the Algerian work, Villalobos issued two invoices to Elecnor in 2011 and 2012 for 3.9 million euros, according to the documents.

The public company of the African country ADE had awarded in 2008 for 250 million euros to the Basque company the engineering, construction, supplies and commissioning services of this infrastructure that Elecnor advertised on its

as "the largest transport network in the Maghreb ”.

The former Chavista leader issued a 3.5 million bill for advice to Elecnor on the Chilean power transmission line.

A work that reported to the energy company a contract of 124.7 million, according to the documents.

The Spanish company stands out from the former Chavista leader.

“The Ancoa-Alto Jahuel transmission line project in Chile and the Souk Tleta drinking water transportation project in Algeria were awarded to Elecnor in international tenders in 2009 and 2008 respectively, without having the services or the intermediation of no commercial agent ”, Elecnor responds by mail.

Villalobos' lawyer, Ismael Oliver, however, admits by email that the Basque firm appeared in the former hierarch's client portfolio.

In addition, the case that an Andorran judge instructs on the alleged looting of 2,000 million euros from PDVSA - and where Villalobos is one of the 28 prosecuted since 2018 - includes two documents that connect the former Venezuelan minister with the Basque company.

These are letters signed in 2009 and 2011 by the then director of the international area of ​​Elecnor, Germán Junquera, where he assures: “Nervis Villalobos collaborates, advises and manages projects for Elecnor SA and its group companies, in the electricity market in Latin America ”.

Villalobos himself, in the questionnaire he filled out when opening one of his 12 accounts in the Andorran bank in June 2007, indicated that he would deposit the income of his advisory company, Ingespre, with this entity.

And he added that his clients included Elecnor, Duro Felguera and Técnicas Reunidas.

The former minister reasoned the opening of his accounts in Andorra - a country shielded by bank secrecy until 2017 - as an alternative to keep his funds "outside of Venezuela in a jurisdiction that offers legal security, stability and confidentiality."

This is what he wrote in the

(know your client, in English), a sort of third degree to which the bank submits its clients to clarify the origin of their funds.

Villalobos' accounts at the BPA received a total of 124.2 million euros until 2015.

The minutes of the department for the prevention of money laundering of the Andorran entity also include the relationship between the former Chavista leader and the Spanish company.

And a Price Waterhouse audit incorporated into the judicial investigation of the Pyrenean country describes the corporate network of the former Venezuelan head of Energy and Petroleum as "instrumental".

The connection between Elecnor and Villalobos is not new.

The Basque energy company paid 11.5 million euros between 2010 and 2012 to the former minister under the concept of an alleged advisory service after the Government of Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) awarded through PDVSA a thermoelectric plant for 1,420 million of euros to a Temporary Union of Companies (UTE) where Elecnor appeared, according to this newspaper.

Villalobos' lawyer: "My client worked for Elecnor"

Nervis Villalobos' lawyer in Spain, Ismael Oliver, considers that his client is the object of a “media lynching”.

Since the first investigations surfaced against the former head of Venezuela's Energy and Petroleum, in 2015, the siege has tightened against this former minister investigated in Spain, Andorra and the United States for his alleged participation in plunder and corruption schemes.

Villalobos does not hide his connection with the Basque energy.

"I confirm that my client worked for Elecnor as for other companies in different projects and [Villalobos] trusts that he can continue to do so when he is allowed to return to normalcy," admits the former minister through his lawyer.

The lawyer insists on the legality of the services provided by his client.

"All the works that Villalobos has developed, both for the company that he cites and others, have been duly invoiced, are transparent and the agreed fees have always been received, through bank transfers", Oliver ditches by email.

investigacion@elpais.es