![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14052017-1.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div>Juan Jos\u00e9 Levy - Photo published in El Clar\u00edn newspaper of Argentina.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14052017-2.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div>Juan Jos\u00e9 Levy - Photo published in El Clar\u00edn newspaper of Argentina.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14052017-3.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div>In the photograph, Julio de Vido and Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olazagasti are at the gates of the Miraflores Palace, on one of their many trips to Caracas.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nIt \r\nhappened on April 20, 2010, and it was a gesture followed with official zeal, \r\nsince days before and after the agreement a delegation of the then President \r\nCristina Fernandez de Kirchner, consisting of the Argentine ambassador in \r\nCaracas, Carlos Alberto Cheppi and Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olazagasti (right-hand man of \r\nJulio De Vido, the controversial Minister of Planning of the Kirchners), had \r\nshared a few hours of flight with Levy from Caracas to Buenos Aires. He was not \r\nthe only one. About 20 trips shared between the entrepreneur and several \r\nofficials of the Casa Rosada, including De Vido, and other evidence exposed in \r\nthe court file show that in this case, there are no \r\ncoincidences.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Having \r\npaved the way for high-ranking K leaders, Levy learned to navigate without \r\ngetting shipwrecked in the business between Buenos Aires and Caracas. Without \r\neconomic capacity to support the agreements reached, their companies enjoyed the \r\nprivilege of a 60% advanced payments as soon as they signed contracts with \r\nSuvinca and the Venezuelan National Telephone Company (Cantv), but they also \r\nincurred in overbilling of merchandise, freight and even insurance of shipments, \r\ndefaults in shipments, and diversion of funds to private banks, later \r\ntransferred to still unknown accounts, and even forging of the signature of one \r\nof the partners of Levy\u2019s companies, his brother Alejandro. It is a mix that \r\nexplains why the Argentine justice considers him as a suspect of money \r\nlaundering, evasion and aggravated smuggling in this trading with Venezuela and \r\nthe seizure of around 300 million pesos in their bank \r\naccounts.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
These \r\nbusinesses with Levy not only involve several state companies, but also reach \r\nthe management of a few Venezuelan officials, like Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez Mel\u00e9ndez \r\n(president of Cantv and former Minister of Science and Technology), Richard \r\nCan\u00e1n and Edme\u00e9 Betancourt (former Trade Ministers) and Eddie Betancourt (former \r\npresident of Suvinca \u2013 Venezuelan Industrial Supplies), among \r\nothers.<\/p>\n\n\n
License to Deceive<\/h2>\n\n\n
For \r\nthe Prosecutor\u2019s Office of Argentina it is \"striking\" that the first of the \r\nthree contracts entered into between Suvinca and Laboratorios Esme \u2014including \r\ntheir \"addenda\", from February 22, 2011 to March 21, 2012\u2014 provided the supply \r\nof 6,325,440 units of products worth 22.3 million dollars. This amount \r\n\"significantly\" increased to 65.5 million dollars and finally to 119.7 million \r\ndollars, but without \"explicitly indicating the increase\" of the merchandise to \r\nbe bought by the Venezuelan state company.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Almost \r\nthe same thing happened with the other Levy companies. Between 2012 and 2013, \r\nCorporaci\u00f3n Gulfos and Bleu Tel signed contracts with CANTV for over 126 million \r\ndollars for the supply of set-top-boxes, external television antennas and \r\nreplacement parts. The Venezuelan telephone company incurred, at the very least, \r\nin an act of faith. None of the companies of the Levy family had a standing and \r\nhad been recently organized at the time of the agreements. Until December 2014, \r\nthe Corporaci\u00f3n Gulfos belonged to Frolem Corporation LC, located in Nevada, \r\nUSA, and was controlled by Plascot Limited, in Seychelles (both created by the \r\nalready famous Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, the documents of which \r\nleaked to the press and gave rise to the global research published in 2016, \r\nknown as Panama Papers).<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14052017-4.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Leaked documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca prove the connection of Juan Jos\u00e9 Levy with several companies registered in tax havens, like Frolem Corporation, a key company for the business carried out by the Argentine businessman with the state company Cantv.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14052017-5.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Leaked documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca prove the connection of Juan Jos\u00e9 Levy with several companies registered in tax havens, like Frolem Corporation, a key company for the business carried out by the Argentine businessman with the state company Cantv.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14052017-6.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Leaked documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca prove the connection of Juan Jos\u00e9 Levy with several companies registered in tax havens, like Frolem Corporation, a key company for the business carried out by the Argentine businessman with the state company Cantv.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14052017-7.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Leaked documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca prove the connection of Juan Jos\u00e9 Levy with several companies registered in tax havens, like Frolem Corporation, a key company for the business carried out by the Argentine businessman with the state company Cantv.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14052017-8.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Leaked documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca prove the connection of Juan Jos\u00e9 Levy with several companies registered in tax havens, like Frolem Corporation, a key company for the business carried out by the Argentine businessman with the state company Cantv.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/14052017-9.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Leaked documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca prove the connection of Juan Jos\u00e9 Levy with several companies registered in tax havens, like Frolem Corporation, a key company for the business carried out by the Argentine businessman with the state company Cantv.<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nBut \r\nFrolem Corporation LC is a secret. \"Based on the registration form of general \r\nand\/or commercial information of the Bureau of Legal Entities (Argentina), it \r\nhas registered domicile in calle Quinquela Mart\u00edn, n\u00famero 19, manzana 11 \"c\" of \r\nCiudad Evita, Partido de la Matanza, provincia de Buenos Aires (...) The \r\nacknowledgement record of March 17, 2014, on public deed 19, from clerk Alicia \r\nFolco, states that the house in that address appeared to be unoccupied, and that \r\nthe light meter did not indicate the use of electric current,\" explains another \r\njudicial file.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nthe end, the money drain and the breaches of contracts were a constant. With the \r\nsale of personal care products, so scarce in the Venezuelan market for years, \r\nwhich Levy had to make through Laboratorios Esme, the mess is such that even in \r\n2016, the company had not complied with the agreed supplies, previously paid by \r\nSuvinca. \"From January 2011 to 7\/19\/2016, the CIF value (freight and insurance \r\nincluded) of Laboratorios Esme exports to company Suvinca was
US $ \r\n49,281,502.65, while the currency exchange settlements in the same period \r\nreached a total of US $ 88,269,655. Hence, the exports made represent only \r\n55.83% of total foreign currency settled,\u201d says the file prepared by prosecutor \r\nMar\u00eda Luz Rivas Diez.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\nThe \r\ndocument reveals almost the same irregularity in the contracts for the supply of \r\nset-top-boxes and television antennas. Based on an account of Corporaci\u00f3n Gulfos \r\nin BBVA Banco Franc\u00e9s, the company had a net worth of 5.7 million dollars, but \r\nhad not \"registered sales\" in 2012 and 2013. However, between last year\u2019s August \r\nand December, there had been an unusual increase in fixed-term deposits in the \r\namount of 52 million dollars. \"We have not been able to obtain actual proof of \r\nthe existence of the merchandise described in the documents provided - acquired \r\nfrom company Chai Wang Digital Limited of Hong Kong -, its actual shipment, its \r\nactual delivery in Venezuela to the National Telephone Company of Venezuela \r\n-owned by PDVSA-, or the cause or justification of the triangulation,\" indicates \r\nthe \"reporting person\" of this banking group to the prosecutor's \r\noffice.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Overbilling \r\nof goods, freight and even insurance was a common practice, according to the \r\njudicial investigation. \"The goods exported by Laboratorios Esme to Suvinca were \r\ndeclared at a price that significantly exceeded the actual price, i.e. the price \r\nof the goods sent to Venezuela was overvalued.\" In comparison with the export \r\nprices of multinational companies like Johnson & Johnson or Kimberly Clark \r\nfrom Argentina, the products shipped by Levy to the Venezuelan government \r\nreflect a premium that ranged between 145% and 339% in items like diapers and \r\npads. There is even a huge price differential between what Levy exported to \r\ncountries like Chile, Cuba or Uruguay, and what it sold to Venezuela. \"As an \r\nexample, in invoice 111 of 6\/11\/2012 to Suvinca de Venezuela, the 4-liter Top \r\nWin Softener for clothes showed a unit price of US $ 6,700. However, in invoice \r\n118 of 6\/26\/2012, the same product was brought to Chile at a unit price of US $ \r\n2,640 \u2014a price difference of around 154%.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
That \r\npractice of inflating invoices was not limited to products. It was use to assess \r\nfreight and insurance cost. \"It is observed that the freight values ??charged by \r\nLaboratorios Esme to Suvinca are disproportionate in relation to the cost that \r\nEsme paid for such concepts to Juwald,\" the Argentine prosecutor explains after \r\ncomparing invoices of several shipments.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
\"This \r\nleads to notice that in addition to an interrupted millionaire contract, much of \r\nthe money paid in advanced and\/or transferred by Suvinca to Laboratorios ESME \r\nwas not intended to pay for goods, but to solve logistics costs outrageously \r\nincreased by ESME,\" as stated in the file.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
With \r\nthe state-owned company Cantv, that overpricing scheme in the value of shipments \r\nis more outrageous. For the Argentine prosecutor's office it is \"inexplicable \r\nand unreasonable\" from a commercial perspective that the cost of air freight was \r\nequal to or higher than the price of the merchandise. Bleu Tel's sales invoices \r\nshow that the antennas had a cost of $ 38 per unit, while the air freight cost \r\nranged from $ 38 to $ 48 per unit. \"The ocean freight cost was US$ 13.12 per \r\nunit. Bear in mind that these are not essential or perishable products that \r\nrequire immediate arrival,\" as indicated in the file.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Laboratorios Esme 2010-2011 \r\nCatalog<\/A> by ArmandoInfo<\/A> on \r\nScribd<\/p>\n\n