Cash, key for Russian and Venezuelan oligarchs

It was a deal that brought together oligarchs from some of America’s main adversaries.

“The key is cash,” the oil broker wrote in a text message, offering a deep discount on shipments of Venezuelan crude to an associate who claimed to be a figurehead for the owner of Russia’s largest aluminum company. “As soon as they have the cash ready, we can get to work.”

The messages were included in a 49-page indictment unsealed Wednesday in New York federal court charging seven people with alleged conspiracy to buy sensitive US military technology, smuggle oil and launder tens of millions of dollars in oil. name of rich Russian businessmen.

The frank conversation between the defendants reads like a guide on how to get around Washington’s sanctions, which include shell companies in Hong Kong, large cash deliveries, ghost oil tankers and the use of cryptocurrencies to hide illicit transactions in the country.

The case also sheds light on how insiders in Russia and its ally Venezuela, both excluded from the Western financial system, are making common cause to protect their enormous fortunes.

At the center of the alleged conspiracy are two Russians: Yury Orekhov, who worked for a US-sanctioned publicly traded aluminum company, and Artem Uss, the son of a wealthy Kremlin-allied governor.

The two are partners in an industrial equipment and raw materials sales company based in Hamburg, Germany. According to the prosecution, the company was a means to circumvent US sanctions imposed against Russian elites after the invasion of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. The two were arrested in Germany and Italy, respectively, on charges filed in the United States, including conspiracy to violate sanctions, money laundering, and bank fraud.

At the other end of the deal was Juan Fernando Serrano, the CEO of a commodities trading startup called Treseus, with offices in Dubai, Italy and his native Spain. His whereabouts are unknown.

In their electronic communications last year, all parties boasted of having connections to powerful people.

“This is our parent company,” Orehkov wrote to Serrano, adding a link to the aluminum firm’s website and another to its owner’s Wikipedia page. “It is also sanctioned. That is why we act from this company”.

Not to be outdone, Serrano replied that his partner was also affected by the sanctions.

“He is one of the influential people in Venezuela. Super close to the vice president, ”he indicated, adding a link that showed the search results of a Venezuelan lawyer and businessman claimed by the United States on charges of alleged money laundering and bribery.

None of the alleged partners was accused in this process nor was he identified by name in the court document. Furthermore, it was unclear what kind of relationship, if any, existed between Serrano and the Venezuelan adviser he cited.

But the description of the Russian billionaire is consistent with that of Oleg Deripaska, who was charged in another sanctions case in New York last month. Some of the proceeds he allegedly diverted to the United States went to an Uzbek Olympian who gave birth there.

The Venezuelan is media tycoon Raúl Gorrín, according to a person close to US security forces who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation remains open. Gorrín is still in Venezuela and is on the list of most wanted people of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) for allegedly plotting a plan to divert 1,200 million dollars from the state oil company Venezuelan, PDVSA.

A US attorney for Deripaska did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For his part, Gorrín did not want to make any statements, but he has rejected other criminal charges against him on the grounds that they are politically motivated.

[Con información de The Associated Press]

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