Ex-Citgo executive seeks $100 mln in damages from Venezuela

HOUSTON Reuters - A former Citgo Petroleum Corp executive jailed in Venezuela for nearly five years is seeking $100 million in damages against his former employer, alleging that it helped set him up to be arrested and failed to defend him from spurious charges.

Tomeu Vadell and his family filed a lawsuit in a Texas state court on Tuesday, claiming Citgo sent him to Caracas when it knew there was an extremely high risk of harm. He was tortured in jail and his family were abandoned by the company, the lawsuit claims.

Five of the original seven executives seized in 2017 were freed in a deal last October involving the release of U.S. jailed relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. One Citgo detainee was released earlier in the day, and the seventh died in a Venezuelan jail.

A Citgo spokeswoman said we sympathize with Mr. Vadell for everything he and his family have been through. We disagree with this lawsuit, which irresponsibly equates CITGO, an American company based in Houston, with an authoritarian regime in Venezuela. The company officials supported Mr. Vadell and his family in a significant financial and other way, the spokesperson said.

Vadell and the other executives were summoned to a meeting at the parent of the Venezuelan state-oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela Citgo. They were charged with a refinancing deal for Citgo that never went through. In 2020, a Venezuelan court sentenced the executives to prison terms ranging from eight to 13 years.