The son-in-law of a Venezuelan opposition leader was sentenced Tuesday to two and a half years in prison for his role in a vast conspiracy to divert $1.2 billion from the state oil company, some of which allegedly ended up in accounts controlled by the stepsons of the President Nicolás Maduro.
Fernando Vuteff53, was arrested in 2022 in Switzerland on a US warrant while visiting to recover a valuable watch from a safe deposit box at a bank in Zurich. The Argentine asset manager is the son-in-law of former Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, a fierce opponent of Maduro. He was charged in federal court in Miami with laundering bribes and illicit profits from a sham foreign currency exchange scheme involving top Venezuelan officials.
Vuteff, in a November statement to Swiss prosecutors, described feeling panicked upon learning that three children of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores from a previous relationship were behind financial accounts in the names of four Scottish-registered front companies that he helped. to establish. The discovery occurred after a meeting he organized in 2015 for an associate in Malta, at which “Los Chamos”—Venezuelan slang for “the children”—appeared unexpectedly.
Vuteff told Swiss prosecutors in Miami, explaining how over the next two years he was pressured to gradually transfer the money out of the accounts, that they had to close the accounts and that it was very difficult because each account had more than $100 million.
He added that the pressure included threats due to the political position of those involved, referring to Maduro’s stepchildren.
A transcript of the statement was provided to The Associated Press by someone familiar with the investigation on condition of anonymity as the Swiss investigation is ongoing.
Corruption is rampant in Venezuela — the country is second only to Somalia in a ranking of 180 countries for perceived levels of corruption — and U.S. prosecutors have uncovered billions in fraud and bribery connected to top officials in recent years.
But the fiscal pressure, which includes drug trafficking accusations against Maduro and several of his aides, has done little to loosen the grip of Maduro, who is scheduled to be sworn in on Jan. 10 for a third six-year term after claiming victory in this summer’s presidential election despite widespread evidence that his opponent won by a two-to-one margin.
Meanwhile, cases against Venezuela have dwindled as several prosecutors in Miami have resigned, the Justice Department has turned its attention to national security investigations in China and Russia, and President Joe Biden’s administration has offered sanctions relief in a so far futile effort to entice Maduro to change course.
Vuteff is one of the highest-profile defendants to have been arrested as part of Operation Money Flight, a multi-year investigation led by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations that targets corruption within Venezuela’s oil industry. Several others remain at large, including Vuteff’s former boss at a Swiss firm, Ralph Steinmann, and one of his former clients, Raúl Gorrín, a billionaire media mogul accused in October of masterminding a currency-exchange scheme using foreign exchange deals. Fake loans to embezzle more than $1 billion from the state oil company PDVSA at a time of collapsing crude oil production.
Gorrín was previously indicted in 2018 for his alleged involvement in a separate bribery case in which he is alleged to have paid bribes, including yachts, private jets and horses to two former Venezuelan national treasurers.
Vuteff comes from humble beginnings, working since he was 12 in a laundry his family owned beneath the small apartment where they lived in rural Argentina.
Defense attorney Brian Bieber said Vuteff was deeply remorseful for his mistakes, actively cooperated with the government’s investigation and had already paid dearly for his crimes by not being able to be at his parents’ bedside when they died due to travel restrictions. .
“I know that decisions in the past were wrong and I’m not trying to find excuses to justify them,” Vuteff, fighting back tears, told Judge Darrin Gayles at Tuesday’s sentencing.
Prosecutors led by Assistant United States Attorney Nalina Sombuntham had sought a 41-month sentence.
Vuteff said he knows he can never undo the damage he has caused but he promises he has used this experience to change. He added that his only desire is to redeem himself.
Twenty-nine childhood friends, business associates and relatives of his Venezuelan wife also wrote letters to the court seeking leniency. Conspicuously absent were any letters from Vuteff’s father-in-law, Ledezma, who led massive anti-government protests before being arrested in 2015 on accusations that he was planning a coup. Ledezma fled house arrest in 2017 and settled in Spain, where Vuteff lived before his arrest.
Ledezma’s wife, Victoria Capriles, told Judge Gayles at Tuesday’s sentencing that she has learned to love Vuteff like a son and that Vuteff has earned her trust and affection.
As part of his plea deal earlier this year, Vuteff agreed to forfeit more than $4 million in illegally obtained assets, including real estate in Miami, Spain and Paraguay.
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