![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-01.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-02.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nThe \r\nlink between Adri\u00e1n Perdomo and the pair Saab-Pulido is such that on February \r\n21, just a month before being sanctioned by the USA, the president of Minerven \r\nwas in Bogot\u00e1. His trip had nothing to do with the operations of the mining \r\ncompany. In fact, Perdomo was trying to dissociate himself from two Colombian \r\ncompanies related to the never-ending business scheme that the couple of \r\nentrepreneurs, also Colombian, developed thanks to their business with Chavismo<\/I>.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Documents \r\nobtained for this report confirm that the participation of Adri\u00e1n Perdomo in the \r\nbusiness structure of the Colombian duo goes back to the activities of Fondo \r\nGlobal de Construcci\u00f3n<\/A>, \r\na holding company with presence in several countries (Colombia, Peru, Venezuela) \r\nand origin in the Mediterranean island of Malta, with which both began in 2011 \r\ntheir career as contractors of the self-styled Bolivarian \r\nRevolution.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-03.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-04.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nAdri\u00e1n \r\nPerdomo - about to be 50 - has only been eight months at the head of the state \r\ncompany in charge of exploring, exploiting and processing gold from the Guayana \r\nmines in southern Venezuela. But his placement coincides with a boom in metal \r\ntrade as a mean to replace the increasingly meager oil revenues of the \r\nGovernment of Maduro due to the disaster that the industry has been experiencing \r\nfor months.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
\"The \r\nTreasury is targeting Minerven and its president for propping up the immediate \r\nenvironment of the corrupt regime of Maduro,\" Steve Munchin, Secretary of the \r\nTreasury, said in a statement on Tuesday. \"We will aggressively pursue those \r\ninvolved in the illicit trade of gold that is contributing to this financial, \r\nhumanitarian and environmental crisis,\" he warned.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
Road to Turkey<\/h2>\n\n\n
Apart \r\nfrom considering them illegal for not being approved by the National Assembly - \r\ncontrolled by the opposition since 2016 - or as a mechanism to evade the \r\nfinancial sanctions imposed by Donald Trump\u2019s administration since August 2017, \r\nUS authorities suspect that there are corrupt practices behind the increased \r\ngold exports. In October 2018, there was a first warning from the \r\nNorth.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
\"We \r\nhave seen Turkish companies replace many of the food companies that made \r\nincursions into the corruption related to the Clap food boxes program,\" said \r\nMarshall Billingslea, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. By that time, \r\nVenezuela was sending shipments of gold to Turkey of about 21 tons, valued at \r\naround 800 million dollars. In exchange, around 31 thousand tons of food and \r\nanother 120 of medicines, came from Turkey to Venezuela dispatched by a score of \r\nsuppliers, while Maduro and Recep Tayyip Erdogan strengthened the ties between \r\nboth nations.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
V\u00edctor \r\nCano, Minister of Mining Development, acknowledged to the Reuters agency in July \r\n2018 that the gold shipments were the product of a gold refining \"deal\" between \r\nTurkey and the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV). \"It is not smuggling to Turkey,\" \r\nhe insisted. It is one of the few statements offered by any Venezuelan official \r\nabout an exchange that seems out of control and of which the president of \r\nMinerven is a key figure.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
One \r\nof his first decisions was also Turkey-related. On August 31, 2018, just one \r\nmonth after taking office, the \r\ncreation of a \"joint venture\" between Minerven and the Turkish Marilyn\u2019s Proje \r\nYatirim, an unknown company connected with the scheme hatched by Alex Saab and \r\n\u00c1lvaro Pulido \u2013 his former bosses -, became official<\/A>. \r\n\u201cWe are a gold and metal products trading company worldwide (...) Our extensive \r\nnetwork of contacts allows us to have wide global coverage,\" says the website of \r\nthe Turkish company. It also affirms that they are capable of extracting and \r\nprocessing gold and precious metals, although without detailing where they have \r\ndeveloped such works. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-05.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-06.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nIn \r\naddition to gold exports from the so-called Orinoco Mining Arc, Maduro has \r\nliquidated part of the gold from international reserves. Noor Capital, a \r\nfinancial firm of the United Arab Emirates, which according to sources has also \r\nbeen used for payments to CLAP food importers, confirmed that in January of this \r\nyear, it bought three tons of that monetary gold. One of the most recent \r\noperations reported by opposition parliamentarians is the sale of eight tons \r\nthat ended up in a refinery in Uganda, which are investigated by the authorities \r\nof that country for potential smuggling. The \u201cCuentas Claras\u201d Digital portal, \r\ndedicated to corruption issues in Venezuela, linked Alex Saab to that case. \r\n\"Sources: Alex Saab would be the owner of the gold seized in Uganda that he \r\nreceived as payment for imports made for the Maduro regime, of which he is the \r\nmain supplier,\" posted the portal on his Twitter account, on March \r\n17.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
This \r\nversion has not been proved. The Venezuelan authorities have not spoken on the \r\nsubject either. However, there is no doubt about the connection of the now \r\nsanctioned president of Minerven with the many businesses of Alex Saab and \r\n\u00c1lvaro Pulido.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
Old Acquaintances<\/h2>\n\n\n
A \r\nfirst proof of the link between the president of Minerven and Colombian \r\nentrepreneurs Alex Saab and \u00c1lvaro Pulido was \r\nrevealed by Armando.info in a report published last October<\/A>. \r\nIt showed that Adri\u00e1n Perdomo was a Caracas-based director of Trading Energy and \r\nCoal (Trenaco), a Colombian oil company headquartered in Switzerland, controlled \r\nin the shadow by Saab. That was just a sign.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
On \r\nFebruary 21, Adri\u00e1n Perdomo dissociated himself in Bogot\u00e1 from Latin American \r\nSupply Corporation (Colasum), registered in February 2015, and Aerojet Executive \r\nSAS, registered on January 8, 2016, with subsidiaries in Venezuela and the USA. \r\nThe first, engaged in food marketing, was founded with Carlos Rolando Lizcano \r\nManrique, an entrepreneur born in C\u00facuta (Department of Norte de Santander in \r\nColombia, on the border with Venezuela) with double share in the Clap business. \r\nOn the one hand, he \r\nowns the company with which Saab and Pulido control the Clap Stores in \r\nVenezuela<\/A>. \r\nHe was also behind Group \r\nGrand Limited<\/A>, \r\nthe Hong Kong company to which the Government granted \r\nat least two contracts for almost 800 million dollars for the importation of \r\n21.5 million food combos<\/A> and \r\nanother 800 million for the purchase \r\nof medicines in India<\/A>.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-07.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-08.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-09.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-10.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/24032019-11.JPG\")
<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nIn \r\nthe case of Aerojet Executive, soon after its registration, the shares were held \r\nby H\u00e9ctor Alejandro Valencia Fern\u00e1ndez, Venezuelan, and Roswell Jes\u00fas Rosales \r\nOberto, Venezuelan and \u00c1lvaro Pulido\u2019s pilot. The Mexican authorities that in \r\nOctober 2018 revealed surcharges and poor quality of food exports by Alex Saab \r\nand \u00c1lvaro Pulido for the CLAPs have records of Roswell Oberto and \u00c1lvaro Pulido \r\nentering that country on private flights.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\npositions of general and acting manager of both Colasum and Aerojet Executive \r\nwere left in the hands of the wives of Adri\u00e1n Perdomo and Roswell Oberto. No one \r\nin these companies answered the interview request. In Venezuela, Aerojet C.A. \r\nwas created in September 2014, in the state of Aragua, center of the country, \r\nand a month later, it was registered in the state of Florida, USA. The company \r\nin Miami is already inactive, but in Venezuela, Roswell Oberto, who also did not \r\nanswer the interview request, is listed as one of the partners, according to the \r\nNational Registry of Contractors (RNC).<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n