(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File). FILE- In this May 24, 2018 file photo, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores greets the media as they arrive to a military parade at Fort Tiuna in Caracas, Venezuela. U.S. prosecutors are loo...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - As President Nicolas Maduro has pushed forward with his plan to rescue Venezuela's cratering economy, U.S. prosecutors are looking into whether members of his family were simultaneously benefiting from what they contend was a scheme to siphon off $1.2 billion from the state-owned oil company, two people familiar with the U.S. investigation told The Associated Press.

The investigation, which gained momentum this week with a key guilty plea in Miami federal court, is part of a vast, multi-year effort by U.S. prosecutors to close the net on Maduro, who has largely dodged the allegations of corruption that have resulted in charges against several senior officials.

In court documents filed Wednesday, a Swiss banker named Matthias Krull admitted that he plotted with men identified only as "Los Chamos" - Venezuelan slang for "the kids" - to launder a $200 million slice of stolen funds from the oil company PDVSA.

Los Chamos actually are Yoswal, Yosser and Walter Flores, the children of First Lady Cilia Flores from a previous relationship and thus Maduro's stepsons, according to the two Americans who discussed the case with the AP. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the allegations.

In a criminal complaint unsealed last month and as part of a factual statement filed with Krull's plea agreement, he and prosecutors refer to them as the "stepsons" of "Venezuelan Official 2," who the two Americans said is Maduro.

Maduro, his wife and her sons were not named in the complaint. But both sources said prosecutors are looking for any links between the first couple and what they believe is a network that funneled hundreds of millions of Venezuela's oil wealth into south Florida luxury real estate, at a time of widespread shortages and hyperinflation in the South American nation.

Several of those assets already are being targeted for seizure, as well as about $45 million at City National Bank of New Jersey and accounts in the Bahamas, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez, one of Maduro's closest aides, did not return repeated messages from the AP seeking comment.

No contact information was available for Maduro's stepsons so they could not be reached for comment.

In daily, hours-long appearances on state TV, Maduro has cultivated an image of himself as a plain-speaking everyman motivated more by ideology than personal gain. But that reputation began to change when two of his wife's nephews were convicted in New York in 2016 of conspiring to smuggle cocaine, exposing his little-known family life to the scrutiny of U.S. investigators for the first time.

Corruption is rampant in Venezuela, and U.S. prosecutors have uncovered billions in fraud and bribes at PDVSA.

The Miami probe - the biggest money-laundering case ever lodged against Venezuelan officials and their associates - comes as Maduro is under increasing pressure to resign and on the heels of an attack with explosives-laden drones that he has called an assassination attempt mounted by the U.S. and his opponents.

A Homeland Security investigator said in last month's criminal affidavit that the conspirators ginned up a currency-exchange scheme using fake loan agreements with the oil giant designed to embezzle about $1.2 billion at a time of collapsing production levels.

At the center of the scheme, prosecutors contend, was Krull, a German national with roots in Venezuela. He was arrested in July at Miami's airport on a criminal complaint naming him and seven other defendants, as well as nine unnamed conspirators, some of them former PDVSA officials. Krull later agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and was charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit money-laundering, for which he faces up to 10 years in prison.

According to court records, prosecutors arrested Krull based on information from a confidential source who reached out in 2014 offering to surrender his take from the money-laundering scheme. Over the next two years, the unnamed individual secretly recorded some 100 conversations with several conspirators, including Krull, who until June worked in Panama for Zurich-based private bank Julius Baer.

Krull is described in the criminal complaint as a "high-level" banker who managed the wealth of several Venezuelan officials and "kleptocrats." He also was referred to as the "personal banker" for "Conspirator 7," who is described as the owner of a Venezuelan TV network and billionaire member of the so-called "boliburgues" that made fortunes under the Bolivarian revolution started by the late Hugo Chavez.

The two people familiar with the case said Conspirator 7 is Raul Gorrin, who became president of Globovision shortly after he and others in 2013 purchased the popular network and softened its anti-government news coverage. Gorrin's Miami lawyer did not return an email and attempts to contact him at Globovision were unsuccessful.

In his plea deal signed Wednesday, Krull said that Conspirator 7 asked him in 2016 to help launder $600 million from fraudulent business transactions with PDVSA. Later, he appealed to him for an "urgent solution" to move an additional $200 million held in a European bank on behalf of other unnamed individuals. Krull said he joined the conspiracy after being introduced directly to Los Chamos at the offices of Conspirator 7.

Krull said in the plea deal that it was explained to him how Los Chamos helped Conspirator 7 "solve issues with Venezuelan Official 2 by intervening with their mother, the wife of Venezuelan Official 2."

Krull's lawyer had no comment. Prosecutors in Miami did not return a phone call seeking comment. Julius Baer, which was not named in the U.S. complaint, said it fully cooperates with authorities but that it could not comment on potential client relationships.

Prosecutors say the embezzled funds involved in Krull's plea deal were generated by a 2014 loan that the oil company obtained in local bolivars from a Venezuelan shell company. Two months later, they say, PDVSA repaid the loan to a Hong Kong-based shell company called Eaton Global, which had taken over the loan, at an official exchange rate well above the black market rate used by the majority of Venezuelans when buying hard currency.

Prosecutors say that allowed Eaton, which they contend was controlled by the conspirators, to collect some 511 million euros from PDVSA - almost 15 times the original loan amount, according to Krull's plea and worksheets obtained by investigators.

One of the first lady's nephews was serving as PDVSA's vice president of finance at the time the loan was repaid to Eaton.

Cilia Flores' three sons range in age from 28 to 39. Two of them, Yoswal and Yosser, have kept a low profile and never occupied public office. The oldest, Walter, was appointed by Maduro in 2014 to head a government-financed foundation focused on social assistance programs for the poor. He was replaced 18 months later.

Maduro met Flores in the 1990s when she was as a lawyer helping win Chavez's release from jail for leading a failed coup attempt. After a two-decade relationship, they married shortly after Maduro was elected in 2013.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — U.S. prosecutors are looking into whether relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were benefiting from what they contend was a scheme to siphon off $1.2 billion from the state-owned oil company, two people familiar with the U.S. investigation told The Associated Press.

The leader has dodged corruption allegations that have resulted in charges against other officials.

In documents filed Wednesday, a banker admitted that he plotted with men identified as "Los Chamos" to launder a $200 million slice of stolen funds from the oil company PDVSA.

Sources said Los Chamos actually are the children of First Lady Cilia Flores.

They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the allegations.

Neither Maduro, his wife nor her children are named in a criminal complaint. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption Those charged are accused of taking bribes in return for lucrative PDVSA contracts

A judge in Andorra has charged 28 people with corruption - among them two Venezuelan former deputy ministers.

Prosecutors allege that they were part of a network of corrupt officials who received $2.3bn (£1.8bn) in bribes from companies in return for lucrative contracts with Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA.

They allegedly hid the money in the Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) bank.

BPA is defunct after it was named as a "primary money-laundering concern".

Judge Canòlic Mingorance in Andorra, a tiny financial haven located between France and Spain, charged the 28 with taking kickbacks of up to 15% to facilitate contracts with PDVSA.

The list of those charged includes Diego Salazar, who is the cousin of former oil minister Rafael Ramírez, as well as two men who served as deputy energy ministers in the government of Hugo Chávez. They are Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado.

Fourteen of the accused are Venezuelan, with nine others from Andorra and five from Spain.

There has been no comment so far from those charged.

'Web of corruption'

The network they allegedly formed part of is thought to have taken $2.3bn in bribes between 2007 and 2012.

The money was then laundered and hidden in Andorra's BPA bank before some of it was transferred into tax havens, prosecutors say.

BPA was accused in 2015 by the US treasury of helping organised crime groups launder money. The Andorran authorities ended up seizing its assets.

Judge Mingorance has been investigating the case since 2012. She alleges that the accused "joined forces to take control of PDVSA's public tendering as well as energy infrastructure projects run by PDVSA's subsidiaries, Corpoelec and Electricity of Caracas".

Former BPA bank officials have also been charged.

Critics of the current Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro and that of his predecessor, President Chávez, have long suspected that officials misappropriated government funds.

On Monday, US treasury official Marshall Billingslea accused President Maduro of "rapacious corruption" and of operating "a kleptocracy".

A number of other high-ranking government officials have had sanctions placed on them and had their assets frozen. Among them is Industry Minister Tarek El Aissaimi, who has been blacklisted by the US for alleged drug trafficking.

Venezuela's government says it is being attacked by "imperialist foes". It blames US sanctions for the dire state of Venezuela's economy, and the poor performance of PDVSA. </s> A former Swiss banker has pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to helping launder $1.2 billion of money embezzled from Venezuela’s bankrupt state oil company in a scheme that involved close relatives of a Venezuelan official.

People familiar with the case say that official is President Nicolás Maduro. </s> BOGOTA, Colombia -- As President Nicolas Maduro has pushed forward with his plan to rescue Venezuela's cratering economy, U.S. prosecutors are looking into whether members of his family were simultaneously benefiting from what they contend was a scheme to siphon off $1.2 billion from the state-owned oil company, two people familiar with the U.S. investigation said.

The investigation, which gained momentum this week with a key guilty plea in Miami federal court, is part of a vast, multiyear effort by U.S. prosecutors to close the net on Maduro, who has largely dodged the allegations of corruption that have resulted in charges against several senior officials.

In court documents filed Wednesday, a Swiss banker named Matthias Krull admitted that he plotted with men identified only as "Los Chamos" -- Venezuelan slang for "the kids" -- to launder a $200 million slice of stolen funds from the oil company PDVSA.

Los Chamos actually are Yoswal, Yosser and Walter Flores, the children of first lady Cilia Flores from a previous relationship and thus Maduro's stepsons, according to the two Americans who discussed the case with The Associated Press. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the allegations.

In a criminal complaint unsealed last month and as part of a factual statement filed with Krull's plea agreement, he and prosecutors refer to them as the "stepsons" of "Venezuelan Official 2," who the two Americans said is Maduro.

Maduro, his wife and her sons were not named in the complaint. But both sources said prosecutors are looking for any links between the first couple and what they believe is a network that funneled hundreds of millions from Venezuela's oil wealth into south Florida luxury real estate at a time of widespread shortages and hyperinflation in the South American nation.

Several of those assets already are being targeted for seizure, as well as about $45 million at City National Bank of New Jersey and accounts in the Bahamas, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez, one of Maduro's closest aides, did not return repeated messages seeking comment.

No contact information was available for Maduro's stepsons, so they could not be reached for comment.

In daily, hourslong appearances on state TV, Maduro has cultivated an image of himself as a plain-speaking everyman motivated more by ideology than personal gain. But that reputation began to change when two of his wife's nephews were convicted in New York in 2016 of conspiring to smuggle cocaine, exposing his little-known family life to the scrutiny of U.S. investigators for the first time.

A Homeland Security investigator said in last month's criminal affidavit that the conspirators ginned up a currency-exchange scheme using fake loan agreements with the oil giant designed to embezzle about $1.2 billion at a time of collapsing production levels.

At the center of the scheme, prosecutors contend, was Krull, a German national with roots in Venezuela. He was arrested in July at Miami's airport on a criminal complaint naming him and seven other defendants, as well as nine unnamed conspirators, some of them former PDVSA officials. Krull later agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and was charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit money-laundering, for which he faces up to 10 years in prison.

According to court records, prosecutors arrested Krull on the basis of information from a confidential source who reached out in 2014 offering to surrender his take from the money-laundering scheme. Over the next two years, the unnamed individual secretly recorded some 100 conversations with several conspirators, including Krull, who until June worked in Panama for Zurich-based private bank Julius Baer.

Krull is described in the criminal complaint as a "high-level" banker who managed the wealth of several Venezuelan officials and "kleptocrats." He also was referred to as the "personal banker" for "Conspirator 7," who is described as the owner of a Venezuelan TV network and billionaire member of the so-called "boliburgues" who made fortunes under the Bolivarian revolution started by the late Hugo Chavez.

The two people familiar with the case said Conspirator 7 is Raul Gorrin, who became president of Globovision shortly after he and others in 2013 purchased the popular network and softened its anti-government news coverage. Gorrin's Miami lawyer did not return an email and attempts to contact him at Globovision were unsuccessful.

In his plea deal signed Wednesday, Krull said that Conspirator 7 asked him in 2016 to help launder $600 million from fraudulent business transactions with PDVSA. Later, he appealed to him for an "urgent solution" to move an additional $200 million held in a European bank on behalf of other unnamed individuals. Krull said he joined the conspiracy after being introduced directly to Los Chamos at the offices of Conspirator 7.

Krull said in the plea deal that it was explained to him how Los Chamos helped Conspirator 7 "solve issues with Venezuelan Official 2 by intervening with their mother, the wife of Venezuelan Official 2."

Krull's lawyer had no comment. Prosecutors in Miami did not return a phone call seeking comment. Julius Baer, which was not named in the U.S. complaint, said it fully cooperates with authorities but that it could not comment on potential client relationships. </s> A Judge in Andorra has charged 29 Venezuela chavista officials with corruption

A judge in Andorra has charged 29 Venezuelans with corruption - among them two former deputy ministers. Prosecutors allege that they were part of a network of corrupt officials who received US$ 2.3bn in bribes from companies in return for lucrative contracts with Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA.

They allegedly hid the money in the Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) bank. BPA is defunct after it was named as a primary money-laundering concern.

Judge Canòlic Mingorance in Andorra, a tiny financial haven located between France and Spain, charged the Venezuelans with taking kickbacks of up to 15% to facilitate contracts with PDVSA, Spanish daily El Pais reports in Spanish.

The list of those charged includes Diego Salazar, who is the cousin of former oil minister Rafael Ramírez, as well as two men who served as deputy energy ministers in the government of Hugo Chávez. They are Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado.

The network they allegedly formed part of is thought to have taken US$ 2.3bn in bribes between 2007 and 2012. The money was then laundered and hidden in Andorra's BPA bank before some of it was transferred into tax havens, prosecutors say.

BPA was accused in 2015 by the US treasury of helping organized crime groups launder money. The Andorran authorities ended up seizing its assets.

Judge Mingorance has been investigating the case since 2012. She alleges that the accused joined forces to take control of PDVSA's public tendering as well as energy infrastructure projects run by PDVSA's subsidiaries, Corpoelec and Electricity of Caracas.

Former BPA bank officials have also been charged.

Critics of the current Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro and that of his predecessor, President Chávez, have long suspected that officials misappropriated government funds.

On Monday, US Treasury official Marshall Billingslea accused president Maduro of rapacious corruption and operating a kleptocracy. A number of other high-ranking government officials have had sanctions placed on them and had their assets frozen. Among them is Industry Minister Tarek El Aissaimi, who has been blacklisted by the US for alleged drug trafficking. </s> MADRID (AP) - A judge in Andorra has charged 28 people, including former officials in Venezuela, with money laundering offenses over a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme that plundered $2 billion from the Venezuelan state oil company between 2007 and 2012.

Investigating magistrate Canolic Mingorance issued the indictments on Thursday, wrapping up a five-year investigation into opaque deposits in the Banca Privada d'Andorra, or BPA, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press.

Among those accused are nine people from Andorra, five from Spain and 14 Venezuelans, including former deputy ministers Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado, as well as Luis Carlos de Leon-Perez, a former official at a state-run electric company in Caracas.

The judge places Diego Salazar, the high-powered cousin of Venezuela's longtime oil czar Rafael Ramirez, at the top of the alleged scheme.

Ramirez, a close aide of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, was energy minister and ran Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, from 2004 to 2013, before becoming Venezuela's envoy to the United Nations until last year, when he fell out with the country's current leadership, resigned and went into hiding.

The Andorran judge says the group received illegal payments from companies, many of them from China, that were rewarded with contracts related to the oil industry. The Andorra-based bank's management then hid the profits in shell companies in various countries, but the money was eventually made available in BPA accounts.

The group "joined forces to control the public bids of PDVSA and the construction of energy-related infrastructure" contracted by the company and its affiliates, the judge wrote in the indictment. She added that its members were so close to "the circles of power of the state" that some of them were informed when early notices of the investigation were shared with Venezuela by Interpol.

In 2015, Andorra intervened in the private bank after the United States Treasury Department accused it of laundering money from groups in China, Russia and Venezuela.

Since then, the tiny mountainous country of 75,000 has taken steps to shake off its reputation as a tax haven, scrapping bank secrecy laws and passing legislation to meet international standards.

The Diari d'Andorra, a local newspaper, said that none of the Venezuelans indicted in the case showed up on Thursday in the capital, Andorra La Vella, to receive the court's notice.

De Leon has pleaded guilty to money laundering and other charges in the U.S., where judicial authorities are also investigating the bribery scheme within and around PDVSA. A court in Houston is scheduled to deliver a sentence later this month.

Spain agreed to extradite Villalobos as part of the same case, but Ramirez's former deputy at PDVSA can't be sent to the U.S. until he is tried by Spanish courts in two separate cases.

Alvarado's whereabouts is not known, while Salazar has been in pre-trial detention in Venezuela since the country's top prosecutor there ordered his arrest late last year. </s> Sept. 14 (UPI) -- More than two dozen people were charged with corruption in an alleged kickback scheme linked to Venezuela's state-run oil company.

On Thursday, a judge in Andorra, a tiny country located between France and Spain, charged 28 people, including former high-ranking Venezuelan officials, with receiving up to $2.3 billion in kickbacks to grease the wheels for the oil company, PDVSA. Prosecutors say the money was hidden in the Banca Privada d'Andorra, or BPA, a now-defunct bank linked to money laundering.

Half of those charged are from Venezuela. Nine are from Andorra and five are from Spain.

The list includes Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado, former deputy energy ministers under former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government. It also includes Diego Salazar, the cousin of former oil minister Rafael Ramirez.

The investigation will focus on bribes that were given in exchange for lucrative contracts between 2007 and 2012.

Judge Canolic Mingorance said the accused conspired to take control of PDVSA's energy infrastructure. She's been investigating the case since 2012.

Andorran authorities shut down BPA after the U.S. Treasury found the bank was laundering money to criminal organizations.

Several high-ranking Venezuelan officials already have sanctions on them or have their assets frozen.

U.S. Treasury official Marshall Billingslea recently accused President Nicolas Maduro of "rapacious corruption" and of operating a "kleptocracy."

Venezuela blames U.S. sanctions for the collapse of the country's economy and PDVSA's woes, saying it's under attack by "imperialist foes." </s> BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Sources: U.S. prosecutors looking into whether relatives of Venezuela’s Maduro benefited from $1.2 billion scheme.
A United States court case gains new evidence and a guilty plea in relation to investigations of corruption and money laundering in Venezuela, adding a group who are suspected to be relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to the list of suspected accomplices.