Sarah Moya, the PDVSA Executive who Moves in Overseas Territories

The name of the former head of the Venezuelan oil company in Colombia appears in the papers of Mossack Fonseca with 100% of the shares of a company created in June 2011, of which she requested to be dissolved six months later. She is unemployed since August 2015, when she was replaced by the ex-sister-in-law of President Nicolás Maduro
Este reportaje se encuentra disponible también en:
In
April 2011, the then manager of Pdvsa Gas Colombia, Sarah Moya, received a
power-of-lawyer to manage a company registered by Mossack Fonseca in the British
Virgin Islands. The documents revealed do not indicate the use given to that
company, but according to the Spanish newspaper ABC, Moya is involved in an
investigation by the Andorran authorities for money laundering from contracts of
the Venezuelan oil company, and it would have as launch point the same Caribbean
tax haven where the above company was registered.
Six
months after the registration of company Helmont Finance Corporation, on
December 16, 2011, the Panamanian law firm received two emails requesting the
dissolution of the company, one from the account of the representative of the
state oil company. Moya ratified the request to dissolve the company with a
letter of January 10, 2012. "Please process this instruction at your earliest
convenience and confirm your execution by email to Pablo Escudero as soon as it
is processed," it is read before the signature of the former senior officer of
Pdvsa Gas Colombia.
Helmont
Finance Corporation was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on June 23,
2011. Since the beginning of the procedure, Moya was represented by Colombian
lawyer Natalia Mulford, who was then working in Panama for company Family
Council Wealth Consulting Planning (FCWCP), founded in Bogota by the expert in
company advising on succession matters, Raúl
Serebrenik.
The Panamanian Efforts
"I
have my client's instructions to incorporate a company in the British Virgin
Islands. I have the format for the new structures ready, but before sending it,
I wanted to confirm that I do not have to send more documents... My partner,
Raúl Serebrenik, through FCWPC Colombia, is registered with you as a referrer.
Do I need to complete the documents again or is it enough with what he
completed? (sic)... I look forward to your comments," wrote the
lawyer.

Email from Moya's lawyer to Mossack Fonseca
Mulford
then requested the incorporation of company Helmont Finance Corporation in the
British Virgin Islands. Five days later, on June 22, the Panamanian law firm
answered that all the paperwork had already been completed. The next day, the
company was incorporated.
They
used a Panamanian woman who lent her name, Connie Hidalgo, who acted as
director, unlike other cases, where the figureheads were Mossack Fonseca
workers. Lawyer Mulford gave the law firm a passport and other information from
the director to facilitate the process.
Hidalgo
transferred the 50 thousand shares of the company, according to the registration
made, to Sarah Moya, at which time she receives the ownership of this offshore
company. In addition, "the original documents of the company will be
maintained," Mulford then clarified, in an address in Caracas that this
journalistic investigation later identified as the apartment of a relative very
close to the former PDVSA manager in Colombia.
At
the time of the registration of the company by Mossack Fonseca, Moya was in
Bogota. As in the cases of PDVSA former auditor Jesús Villanueva, and former
Vice President of Finance Eudomario Carruyo, the Compliance Department of
Mossack Fonseca checked Moya and activated an early warning because she was a
Politically Exposed Person. In 2005, she was the Head of the International
Affairs Department of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, when Rafael Ramírez
was already in charge. Curiously, the investigation of the law firm did not
reveal that at that time, she was the manager of Pdvsa Gas Colombia. That is why
from June to December 2011, she managed the shell company without any
inconveniences.
That
normality was maintained until December 16 of that year. That day, the employees
of Mossack Fonseca first read the message sent by a man named Pablo Escudero,
who wrote from the email of financial company EFG Capital, based in Brickell,
Miami. A few hours later, Moya ratified the request from the wanadoo.fr email
platform. This investigation identified the former manager as the owner thereof:
"Good afternoon. This is to confirm the request for dissolution as soon as
possible." It was Sarah Moya's address. The next day, the Panamanian law firm
contacted Mulford, as the representative recognized by them, and bound itself to
process everything necessary to fulfill the request of the
shareholder.

Moya's email confirming her request
In
March 2012, the liquidation process of Helmont Finance Corporation was
completed, but Mulford requested in parallel services from Mossack Fonseca to
register a company in two US regions, Florida and Delaware, which is considered
a tax haven. Mulford later reported that the client, without mentioning first
and last name, preferred to stay in the British Virgin
Islands.
The
information on the transaction and dissolution of Helmont Finance is known due
to a leak of emails and other files of Mossack Fonseca - a law firm founded in
Panama for legal and financial advice in tax havens -, obtained by the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
(ICIJ).
Trusted Staff
Moya
is an internationalist graduated from Universidad Central de Venezuela, with
higher education at the Sorbonne in Paris, and work experience in the country
and abroad. Her professional career links her to Rafael Ramírez, former
president of PDVSA, former Minister of Energy and Petroleum and today ambassador
to the UN. The biographical evidence places her very close to Diego Salazar, the
insurance broker and cousin of Ramírez, linked to the case of money laundering
at Banco Privado de Andorra.
Diego
Salazar Luongo and Quintín Moya, parents of the insurance broker and the former
Pdvsa manager, respectively, participated in the 60’s guerrilla, and even shared
a cell and escaped in the San Carlos barracks, in Caracas, together with other
leaders of the then left, like Teodoro Petkoff.
Even
one of Moya's aunts is currently married to Rafael Salazar, who was the Human
Resources manager of Pdvsa in the administration of his cousin Rafael Ramírez.
This Salazar is also Diego's cousin.
At
the beginning of the first decade of this century, Moya met in London Bernard
Mommer, who was adviser to Ramírez and President Hugo Chávez, and also an Oxford
professor. The oil expert invited her to continue her studies in
England.

The former manager of PDVSA has been linked to the insurance broker, Diego Salazar, who is also a cousin of former minister Rafael Ramírez
In
her résumé, she affirms that from 2001 to 2002, she worked as technical
assistant to the vice minister of Hydrocarbons in Venezuela. In January 2005,
she came to Caracas with Mommer -recently appointed vice minister of
Hydrocarbons - to assumed the position of head of the International Affairs
Department of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, which she held for less than
10 months. She was then sent to London again, to the headquarters of PDV UK. She
stayed in London for one more year only, because the parent company closed the
office in that city. Since she was unemployed, she went to Colombia, where Pdvsa
began negotiations to open an office. Rafael Ramírez appointed her as manager of
Pdvsa Gas Colombia, in charge of the construction and administration of the
Antonio Ricaurte binational gas pipeline.
The Wake of Bitterness
Asking
about Moya to her former co-workers is equal to finding traces of bitter
disputes, arguments, recriminations and accusations. It happened to her in
Caracas, where she had differences with La Campiña employees; in London, a
former colleague prefers not to speak about her, although the little she says is
not kind; and in Colombia, a country where she had confrontation not only with
her supervisors, but also with representatives of Wayúu communities, through
which the gas pipeline passes.
The
Siente América website has a file of complaints from former employees of Pdvsa
Gas Colombia and representatives of the Wayúu, which has published in several
issues, documents provided for this report.
Based
on the information provided by the digital media, the representative of the La
Ciénaga oversight office, José Morales, would be one of those who filed a
complaint with the Colombian Prosecutor's Office. He says in the communication
without an specific date that "after the relevant follow-up by this oversight
office, we found multiple inconsistencies in the expenses of PDVSA in Colombia;
and it even seems that the shortages generated on the one hand, in the case of
monies that do not go to WAYUU communities, swelled the personal and private
economic assets of manager MOYA MACHADO."
In
October 2009, a group of indigenous people complained to the official of the
Venezuelan oil company for the breach of a deed of commitment signed in 2008.
"The people in PDVSA are mocking us and National Government officials allow them
to do it," said the Wayúu leaders who took the facilities of the Ombudsman's
Office in the Colombian Guajira for 10 days.
In
the workplace, former employee Yaneth Anaya Estévez, dismissed in 2009 from her
job, told in a letter sent to authorities of the Venezuelan oil industry that
she was fired because she requested a permit to undergo medical examinations.
She states in the letter that Moya made them work 12-14 hours on average,
verbally mistreated them, lacked knowledge for the position she held and made
continuous layoffs on a whim. The former official did not want to talk much
about her former boss. "I know that that woman managed the office as if it were
her home and there were irregular money movements," said Anaya Estévez. She
pointed out by email that she did not receive any response from the executives
of the Venezuelan state oil company.

Certificate of Sarah Moya’s company, manager of the PDVSA office in Colombia
Money Laundering in Andorra
All
these complaints, according to Siente América digital portal, were presented to
the authorities of Venezuela and Colombia. The medium also refers to another
case beyond the Colombian-Venezuelan borders. It is about the laundering of
money from Pdvsa in Banco Privado de Andorra.
The
former manager of Pdvsa Gas Colombia is next to the names of other senior
officials of the state oil company, as the only woman investigated for money
laundering in Banco Privado de Andorra, where, according to official
information, over 1,400 million euros of deposits of industry leaders were
admitted.
In
May 2015, according to the story published by the Spanish newspaper ABC, the
judicial authorities of the Principality of Andorra sent two rogatory letters to
USA and Venezuela to request banking information about senior PDVSA
officials.
The document sent by Andorra and partially reproduced by the newspaper describes the origin and the way in which the officials were could carry out the laundry operation. "From 2006 until late 2012, financial transactions have been detected between individuals and legal entities that are related for the investigations. As a common denominator - the document adds -, the participating individuals are native of Venezuela and the companies used to transfer the funds from abroad to the Principality of Andorra or vice versa are mostly from Panama, Belize or the British Virgin Islands... The money circulating internationally - the rogatory commission specifies - would have a criminal origin due to political corruption and/or would come from officials of the Venezuelan State», and adds that a good part of the funds would also come from overvalued insurance contracts whose holders would be Venezuelan public companies.”
Replaced by Ex Sister-in-Law
To
compare the information for this report, the former manager of Pdvsa Gas
Colombia was contacted through the email address she used to request the
liquidation of the company on December 16, 2011. Two days after, she responded
and an agreed to have an interview via Skype. However, she refused for the
content of a one hour and 20 minute conversation to be used when this report was
in the final stage. Security reasons were stronger than her will to clarify what
she claims to be a smear campaign.
Only
one of the other three persons involved in this case answered. Serebrenik
responded to the request for information through a message on LinkedIn. "...I am
totally unaware of what you are talking about. I suggest you to contact lawyer
Natalia Mulford. I do not know Sara Moya (sic)," he said in 24 words. After
insisting through a new message, the adviser said, "We are a company advising
firm of family companies and boards of directors only. I never heard the name
Moya."
By
the time Serebreik suggested addressing the "lawyer," Mulford had already been
sent three emails to her office in Panama, without obtaining information on the
reasons of her actions in this case. Finally, an unsuccessful attempt was made
to contact Escudero through his former co-workers at EFG Capital. That is why
you can only know the stories told in the Panama papers.
Moya is out of PDVSA since August 2015, after being replaced in the management of the Bogota office by Laura Guerra Angulo, sister of the ex-wife of President Nicolás Maduro, and aunt of the only known son of the national president. She is currently unemployed and does not want to return to Venezuela.