( Spanish) – An investigative jury from the Southern District of Florida on Wednesday accused Venezuelan businessman Raúl Gorrín, owner of the Globovisión network, of participating in a scheme that allegedly laundered US$1.2 billion, the United States Department of Justice reported in a statement.
The accusation, which joins others from 2018, indicates that between 2014 and 2018 Gorrín would have conspired with other people to launder illicit profits from contracts with the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and that to do so he would have paid bribes to senior officials of your country.
According to the Department of Justice, Gorrín and his accomplices allegedly used the US financial system, front companies and bank accounts in other countries in order to hide the payment of bribes and the illicit origin of the money they obtained.
Gorrín, declared a fugitive by US authorities after being accused in 2018 of money laundering and other crimes, could face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison for this case. “Gorrin’s alleged conduct enriched corrupt government officials and exploited the United States financial system to facilitate these crimes,” said Principal Deputy Deputy Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, quoted in the statement.
is attempting to contact Gorrín and his legal defense for comment.
The businessman faces another accusation in the US for money laundering dating back to 2018, when Gorrín, Claudia Patricia Díaz Guillén, former treasurer in the government of Hugo Chávez, and her husband, Adrián José Velásquez, a former member of the then security team president of Venezuela, were accused of participating in a scheme to launder resources.
The accusation at that time indicated that Díaz Guillén received million-dollar bribes from Gorrín in exchange for ensuring him the possibility of buying government bonds and carrying out operations in dollars at a favorable rate.
Díaz Guillén and Velásquez were arrested in Spain in 2018 and extradited to the US in 2022. In April 2023, a US federal judge sentenced them to 15 years in prison. Gorrín is also considered a fugitive in this case.
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