Far from Cuba, the Venezuelan identity documents were actually designed in Germany. Havana’s intermediation has only left a trail of transfers and commissions that transited at least four countries. For years, there was a surreptitious key character in this operation. But his secret was not kept under lock and key, and is about to be revealed in this report.
Until 2010, he was the auditor general of PDVSA. A year before retirement, he wanted to have a power of attorney to manage a company registered in Panama, through an operation that involved Switzerland and Luxembourg, all under a scheme designed by Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm specialized in creating international structures to cover the wealth of those who can pay for their services.
In 2007, Retired General Víctor Cruz Weffer, head of Plan Bolívar 2000 and Fondur, opened a company in Seychelles after he was charged for illicit enrichment and data concealment. He could never justify the Bs. 1,071 million increase of his equity, equal to 86% of the funds he managed from 2000 to 2003.
As part of a global project, Venezuelan journalists participated in the review of millions of files leaked from a Panamanian law firm specialized in registering companies in tax havens. The documents, obtained by the German newspaper 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' and processed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), show patterns for government officials and business groups to hide their identities or money.
Far from Cuba, the Venezuelan identity documents were actually designed in Germany. Havana’s intermediation has only left a trail of transfers and commissions that transited at least four countries. For years, there was a surreptitious key character in this operation. But his secret was not kept under lock and key, and is about to be revealed in this report.
Until 2010, he was the auditor general of PDVSA. A year before retirement, he wanted to have a power of attorney to manage a company registered in Panama, through an operation that involved Switzerland and Luxembourg, all under a scheme designed by Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm specialized in creating international structures to cover the wealth of those who can pay for their services.
In 2007, Retired General Víctor Cruz Weffer, head of Plan Bolívar 2000 and Fondur, opened a company in Seychelles after he was charged for illicit enrichment and data concealment. He could never justify the Bs. 1,071 million increase of his equity, equal to 86% of the funds he managed from 2000 to 2003.
As part of a global project, Venezuelan journalists participated in the review of millions of files leaked from a Panamanian law firm specialized in registering companies in tax havens. The documents, obtained by the German newspaper 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' and processed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), show patterns for government officials and business groups to hide their identities or money.
A handshake between Hugo Chávez and Jiang Zemin, President of China, sealed a commercial relationship between Caracas and Beijing that totals two decades of cooperation marked by thousands of dollars and debts, half efficiency, and much opacity. Now, hundreds of official documents obtained by Armando.info and processed together with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) reveal, through a series of stories, how this exchange flowed, which was not always advantageous for Venezuela.
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