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<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nPandora's box<\/h2>\n\n\n
On \r\nAugust 23, the rebel prosecutor traveled to Brazil to meet with counterparts \r\nfrom the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) nations. A few days before, she had \r\nescaped from Caracas to Bogot\u00e1 after being dismissed in early August by the \r\nquestioned National Constituent Assembly (ANC) with which the Chavismo has \r\nfinally supplanted the parliament under opposition control since January 2016. \r\nIn the Brazilian capital, surrounded by microphones and in front of the cameras \r\nof the media, Ortega D\u00edaz said that President Maduro is a beneficiary of Group \r\nGrand Limited and the sale of food for the CLAP, a plan that the government \r\nwields as the solution to the widespread shortage of food and the \"economic \r\nwarfare\" of local businessmen.<\/p>\n\n\n
\"We also have these proofs, I'm going to hand them over to the authorities of different countries\"<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n
\"We \r\nhave investigation on the food bags delivered in Venezuela, the CLAP, a Mexican \r\ncompany, registered in Mexico under the name of two people. The company is \r\ncalled Group Grand Limited, a company presumed to be owned by the President of \r\nthe Republic, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\", shot the now-persecuted by the Chavismo. She \r\nfurther explained that the official owners would be the Venezuelan Rodolfo Reyes \r\nand the Colombians \u00c1lvaro Pulido Vargas and Alex Saab. \"We also have these \r\nproofs, I'm going to hand them over to the authorities of different countries\", \r\nshe said, which caused commotion in Venezuela and Colombia.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Ortega \r\nD\u00edaz's statements aimed to show that \u00c1lvaro Pulido Vargas and Alex Nain Saab \r\nMor\u00e1n, until now related to former Colombian senator Piedad C\u00f3rdoba, are also \r\nclose to the Venezuelan president. In other words, Maduro would be another \r\nprotector of the business that for years Pulido and Saab won with the Chavismo. \r\nDespite some inaccuracies, Ortega D\u00edaz's allegations are not \r\nmisguided.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/03092017-4.png\")
<\/div><\/div>Alex Saab- Photo by: Diario El Tiempo, Bogot\u00e1<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/03092017-5.png\")
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<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nOn \r\nApril 23rd, Armando.info published a first report on the operations of \r\nGroup Grand Limited, \r\na company registered in Hong Kong on March 8, 2013 with a capital of $10,000. \r\nFrom May 7, 2015 until February 24 this year, the director was Shadi Nain Saab \r\nCertain, son of Alex Nain Saab Mor\u00e1n. In addition to the family bond, father and \r\nson are joined together with other relatives in two foundations created in \r\nPanama called Seafire Foundation and Fundaci\u00f3n Hesace, and they formed a \r\npartnership in a company called Saab Certain & Company, registered and later \r\nliquidated in Barranquilla, birthplace of Alex Saab.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Alex \r\nSaab himself and his lawyers quickly denied his association with Group Grand \r\nLimited. \"I am not part of the food-related company\", the businessman replied to \r\nthe newspaper El Tiempo<\/I> of Bogot\u00e1 in a brief interview via email that was \r\npublished on August 25. There, on the other hand, he admitted having a \r\nfriendship for \"many years\" with former Colombian senator Piedad C\u00f3rdoba, whom \r\nhe described as a \"great person and natural leader\" and whom he said he admired \r\nfor \"her fight for human rights\". Months earlier, in April, when Piedad \r\nC\u00f3rdoba's name had already been linked to Alex Saab's business, the former \r\nsenator was honored by the Governorate of Tachira, which already negotiated with \r\nGroup Grand Limited.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\nIn \r\nthe same vein, one of his lawyers spoke out. Abelardo De La Espriella, known for \r\nhis harsh opinions against the Venezuelan president, told the newspaper El \r\nHeraldo<\/I> of Barranquilla that his defendant \"has nothing to do with that food \r\ncompany\" and that he \"is not related to the Venezuelan Government\". He even \r\nassured that if Saab \"were a partner of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, he would not be \r\ndefending him\". <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
But \r\nshipping documents and invoices confirm that when Alex Saab's son was still \r\nresponsible for Group Grand Limited, the company sold hundreds of kilos of food \r\nfor the CLAP to the Tachira Governorate. Between January 8 and January 30 of \r\nthis year, it issued at least 149 invoices to the Government of T\u00e1chira state \r\nfor about 212 million dollars, more than half of the 340 million dollars \r\ninitially approved by Maduro. According to those documents, the company charged \r\nin advance for food trading. Each of the boxes was sold in approximately 34 \r\ndollars, barely 340 bolivars at the preferential exchange rate, but marketed in \r\nVenezuela above 10 thousand bolivars, almost 30 times its \r\nvalue.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
If \r\nthe father-son connection is insufficient, other indications reveal that Alex \r\nSaab is the man behind the CLAP boxes marketed by Group Grand Limited. Shadi \r\nNain Saab Certain's address on the Hong Kong registry, as well as the address on \r\nthe invoices, refers to the offices in Caracas of Fondo Global de Construcci\u00f3n, \r\na company with which Alex Saab won a contract with Hugo Ch\u00e1vez himself in 2011 \r\nto sell prefabricated houses to the \"Mission Housing\" plan. That same address \r\nwas on Group Grand Limited's website until last April, but it was modified after \r\nthey were asked about the relationship between the two companies and the \r\nColombian businessman. After the accusations of Ortega Diaz that \r\nsecond address disappeared from the portal, reaffirming the ghostly nature of \r\nthe company.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
The \r\ncompany's current director, the Colombian lawyer, former consul of that country \r\nin New York and former president of the National Hydrocarbon Association, also \r\ndenied Alex Saab's participation. In a communiqu\u00e9 signed by him and broadcast to \r\nthe Colombian media on August 28, Betancourt said that \"it is totally false that \r\nany of the people mentioned by Mrs. Ortega (D\u00edaz) are part of the shareholding \r\ncomposition of Group Grand Limited\". He also stated that they are only one of \r\n\"at least 12 companies that currently provide CLAP boxes\" to the Venezuelan \r\ngovernment. \"The contractual relations we have entered into with the Bolivarian \r\nRepublic of Venezuela are governed by the rules of law of that country\", reads \r\nthe text signed by Betancourt, who entrusted the defense of Group Grand Limited \r\nto former Colombian prosecutor Mario Iguar\u00e1n.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Although \r\nthe communiqu\u00e9 claims that the company works with \"total transparency\", it does \r\nnot disclose who the real owners are. From the movements in the Hong Kong \r\nregistry, it appears that on February 24, when Shadi Nain Saab Certain resigned \r\nfrom the board and Betancourt assumed his position, Group Grand Limited's shares \r\nwere transferred to two Panamanian companies. These are Eolo Energies INC and \r\nViladrake International INC, the latter created in November 2016 and managed \r\nsince January 27 of this year by the attorney-in-fact Jorge Wuerms, a Panamanian \r\nspecialized in finance and linked to Penates AG, a financial firm based in \r\nSwitzerland.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
The art of hiding<\/h2>\n\n\n
If \r\nthe structure of Group Grand Limited in Hong Kong is opaque, the Mexican \r\nsubsidiary referred to by Ortega D\u00edaz in her denunciation also raises \r\nsuspicions. According to the Public Registry of Commerce of Mexico City, Group \r\nGrand Limited S.A. was registered on March 21, 2017, two months after having \r\ninitiated the commercial exchange with the Governorate of T\u00e1chira through the \r\nHong Kong headquarters. Prior to the commercial registration, and because it was \r\na foreign business, on March 13, 2017, the company filed an \"authorization of \r\ndenomination\/business name\" with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the \r\nMinistry of Economy of Mexico. The diplomatic tension between Maduro and Enrique \r\nPe\u00f1a Nieto, as well as the insults of Maduro and the Venezuelan authorities \r\nagainst Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, had not yet been unleashed with \r\nregard to Mexico's position in the face of the Venezuelan political crisis that \r\nbegan at the end of March.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\ncapital of the company is 100,000 Mexican pesos, 99% of which belongs to Group \r\nGrand Limited of Hong Kong and the remaining 1% to Santiago Uzc\u00e1tegui Pinto, a \r\n33-year-old Venezuelan born in Madrid, residing in Barquisimeto, State of Lara, \r\nin western Venezuela, and with his own companies in the area of ??food and \r\nconstruction. On May 4, Uzc\u00e1tegui Pinto granted the company control through \r\npowers of attorney to Andr\u00e9s Eduardo Le\u00f3n Rodr\u00edguez and Enmanuel Enrique Rubio \r\nGonz\u00e1lez, son of \u00c1lvaro Pulido Vargas, the other Colombian businessman referred \r\nby Ortega D\u00edaz. The reason why the surnames do not coincide is that the true \r\nidentity of \u00c1lvaro Pulido Vargas would be that of Germ\u00e1n Rubio, a name that he \r\ndecided to change after being linked to an investigation for drug trafficking, \r\nas revealed by the journalist Gerardo \r\nReyes.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n
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<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\"They \r\nare third parties used as the face of the companies and in order to not be \r\nlinked to them (Alex Saab and \u00c1lvaro Pulido) because they are being subject of \r\ninvestigations in several jurisdictions\", says a source who prefers to remain \r\nanonymous. One of those investigations was the one carried out by the Ecuadorian \r\nauthorities to the company Fondo Global de Construcci\u00f3n, with which Alex Saab \r\nand \u00c1lvaro Pulido Vargas obtained access to the Venezuelan preference dollars \r\nand to the Unitary System of Regional Compensation of Payments (Sucre) promoted \r\nby the Governments of Caracas and Quito. In Ecuador, it is suspected that the \r\ncompany incurred in money laundering, fake exports and over-invoicing, among \r\nother irregularities, with the Ecuadorian subsidiary of Fondo Global de \r\nConstrucci\u00f3n, another complex business structure that, like Group Grand Limited, \r\nleads to a tax haven, in this case on the island of Malta, in the Mediterranean \r\nSea.<\/p>\n\n\n
\"The General Law of Mercantile Associations states that an address must be provided as one of the basic requirements for the constitution of an association\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n
The company's registration in Mexico also \r\ndraws attention to the fact that there is no business address in the Mexican \r\nterritory, which implies a breach of the General Law of Mercantile Associations \r\nof that country and reaffirms the group's ghostly nature. \"The General Law of \r\nMercantile Associations states that an address must be provided as one of the \r\nbasic requirements for the constitution of an association, which is due to the \r\nidea that the association can cope with any type of claim or prosecutor's \r\nrequirement. It remains a mystery how the notary public apparently overlooked \r\nthis requirement, which makes it appear as an intention of evading the \r\nresponsibility of facing any claim or issue raised by its corporate purpose\" \r\nwarns a Mexican lawyer who reviewed the registration papers and preferred to \r\nremain anonymous. To make matters worse, the notary responsible for the \r\nregistry, Guillermo Oliver Bucio, has been involved in wrongdoings, according to \r\nthe Mexican press.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nany case it has not been an impediment to take over the CLAP business. Mexican \r\nbusinessmen, some of them suppliers of Group Grand Limited, assert that the \r\ncompany is the only one with the financial capacity to continue in the business \r\nafter the departure of Samark L\u00f3pez Bello and the failed attempts of other \r\nVenezuelan entrepreneurs, which according to those sources would be linked to \r\nAlex Saab himself under other corporate titles. From the packing company El \r\nSardinero, up to 25 thousand boxes are prepared on a daily basis to be \r\ndispatched from the port of Veracruz to La Guaira. This company is one of the \r\nlargest Mexican companies dedicated to packing boxes or food pantries, a \r\nstandard policy in several instances of Mexican Government. \"El \r\nSardinero was making at least 25 thousand daily pantries, which implies almost \r\n25 containers per day, since each one has 1300 pantries (...) This project \r\n(CLAP) was halted because the Venezuelans did not transfer the resources and the \r\nonly one that continued to work was El Sardinero\", says a Mexican \r\nsupplier.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
<\/p>\n\n