Swiss Miss(conduct)
Reports of a big DoJ investigation into money laundering in Switzerland confirms what we'd all figured: a major U.S. investigation into Derwick is ongoing.
Bloomberg has a good, meaty piece today on crusading U.S. District Attorney Preet Bharara’s widening investigation into bribery and money laundering arising from corruption at PDVSA and Bandes. The big news is that the gringos are looking into potential misconduct at a headspinning eighteen different Swiss Banks – including pretty much all the big ones – in connection with Venezuela-related money laundering.
But it’s the inside detail that’s really interesting to this blog’s readers:
The Swiss bank records are being sought by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in connection with his office’s investigation into representatives of Derwick Associates, a Venezuelan energy company that has done business with PDVSA, the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) in Bern said. Bharara’s request means that records of any wire transactions between the 18 banks and individuals or companies suspected of bribery or other criminal conduct in Venezuela will be given to federal prosecutors in New York.
So, the Justice Department is leading a major investigation “continuous witch hunt” into Bolichicostan. You can upgrade that one from “universally presumed” to “actually confirmed”, then…
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