An expanding anti-corruption probe in Venezuela has resulted in the arrest of 10 officials and 11 businessmen, the country's attorney general said on Saturday that arrest warrants for 11 more people have been issued.
The investigation, started in October, is focused on the state oil company PDVSA, a government entity that oversees criptocurrency operations, and judiciary. This week, it led to the resignation of the country's powerful oil minister, Tareck El Aissami, who had served the government for two decades.
Attorney General Tarek Saab told reporters in a press conference that officials, businessmen who have benefited from corruption and young people are involved in one of the most lurid plots in recent years.
Saab said that a Venezuelan entity who oversees the use of cryptocurrencies for official transactions was assigned oil cargoes for sale with no administrative control. He said that many of the buyers did not pay for the oil correspondingly.
PDVSA has accumulated US $21.2 billion in commercial accounts receivable since 2020, including US $3.6 billion that may be unrecoverable, according to documents seen by Reuters this week.
The 21 people arrested are accused of appropriation of public assets, money laundering, influence peddling and criminal association. The attorney general said that officials could face charges of treason.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, who said he had been directly responsible for the probe, has this week appointed PDVSA's head Pedro Tellechea as new oil minister, delegating in him the oversight of the whole industry.
In the past five years, Saab's office investigated 31 cases linked to corruption in Venezuela's oil industry, which provides the majority of the OPEC country's hard-currency revenue, leading to almost 200 people being prosecuted.