A \r\ncheck for 8 million 500 thousand bolivars, dated September 2010, is a milestone \r\nin the business career of Samark Jos\u00e9 L\u00f3pez Bello. The payment \u2014equal to 1.9 or \r\n3.2 million dollars, based on the two official exchange rates existing at that \r\ntime in Venezuela\u2014 allowed L\u00f3pez Bello, with only 36 years of age, to assume the \r\nmajority shareholding of Profit Corporation C.A., an engineering company founded \r\nin the 90s. A month earlier, Armando Jos\u00e9 Salazar Gibory and Marcos Rafael \r\nCabello Bello had acquired it, two names that will accompany Samark L\u00f3pez in \r\nseveral of the companies that he surreptitiously accumulated until the US \r\nTreasury Department proclaimed him the \"front man\" of Tareck El Aissami, vice \r\npresident of the Republic.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
It \r\nwas in February when the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) accused him of \r\n\"providing material assistance\" and \"financial support\" to El Aissami, whom the \r\nadministration of Donald Trump links to drug trafficking. US authorities \r\nsanctioned 13 assets in up to five jurisdictions: Venezuela, Panama, the British \r\nVirgin Islands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. \"We have \r\nfrozen assets, tens of millions of dollars in assets that will have a very big \r\nimpact for El Aissami and his environment,\" summarized Secretary of the Treasury \r\nSteve Mnuchin.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t