Venezuelans linked to PDVSA amassed fortunes in Swiss bank, according to investigation

(Credit: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images)

(CNN Spanish) --

More than two dozen Venezuelans allegedly linked to cases of corruption and money laundering - some of them investigated and others accused - related to the state company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) amassed fortunes that came to add to the least US$ 270 million, according to what was revealed this Sunday by a report prepared by a journalistic consortium.

The organization Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which brings together different media outlets and journalists in many countries, including

”, and which published the report this Sunday, said that it based its report on the leak of some 18,000 accounts of Credit Suisse, a bank based in Switzerland and that would have been used by dozens of Venezuelans, high-ranking officials of other governments and alleged human rights violators, among others, to take money out of their countries from -in several cases—of shady deals.

CNN has not been able to independently review the documents leaked to one of OCCRP's partners and on which the investigation is based.

Having accounts in jurisdictions protected by regulations related to bank secrecy is not a crime.

Switzerland signed a financial transparency agreement in 2015.

This Sunday, Credit Suisse said in a statement that it "strongly rejects allegations and innuendos about the bank's alleged business practices. The matters presented are predominantly historical, in some cases dating back to the 1940s, and accounts of these matters are based on partial, inaccurate or selective information taken out of context, resulting in biased interpretations of the bank's business conduct".

The banking institution added: "While, by law, Credit Suisse cannot comment on potential customer relationships, we can confirm that steps have been taken in accordance with applicable policies and regulatory requirements at the relevant times, and have already been addressed the related issues.

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Former Minister of Energy had more than US $ 10 million in an account, according to research

According to the consortium, almost all the Venezuelans in the group, including Nervis Villalobos, former Deputy Minister of Energy between 2001 and 2006, opened accounts with the bank between 2004 and 2015, when millions of dollars were taken from PDVSA in corruption schemes, indicates the research.

In the case of Villalobos, only one of his accounts with Credit Suisse had just over US$10 million, the investigation explained.

“The money is not blocked nor has its illicit origin been proven.

There is no court anywhere in the world that has blocked that money," Ismael Oliver, Villalobos' lawyer in Spain, told CNN.

Spanish authorities arrested Nervis Villalobos in 2017, and he remains in that country awaiting extradition to the United States.

The former deputy minister is accused by the Texas Southern District Attorney of more than 20 counts of money laundering, in an alleged plan that would involve bribes paid by owners of US-based companies to various Venezuelan government officials to secure contracts. of energy and payment priority in pending invoices.

CNN also contacted the Venezuelan government for its reaction on the findings of the journalistic investigation, but so far it has not responded.

Pau Mosquera and Osmary Hernández contributed to this report