Former Venezuelan oil minister is arrested in connection with corruption probe, authorities say

abcnews.go.com:

Venezuela’s government says the country’s former oil minister has been arrested on allegations of corruption

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s once-powerful oil minister, who resigned unexpectedly last year during a corruption probe at the top ranks of the state-run crude industry, has been arrested, the government said Tuesday. The former oil czar is being investigated over an alleged scheme through which hundreds of millions of dollars in oil proceeds seemingly disappeared.

The Ministry of Communications released images of Tareck El Aissami being handcuffed and walking down a hallway, flanked by officers. Attorney General Tarek William Saab told reporters that El Aissami will make his first court appearance on Tuesday on charges that include treason, money laundering and criminal association.

Saab did not say when El Aissami was arrested.

The oil minister resigned a few days before senior officials in the government of President Nicolás Maduro and business leaders were arrested in March 2023 as part of an investigation into the corruption scheme that was based on international oil sales. El Aissami disappeared from public life after the arrests and his whereabouts were frequently questioned.

Saab said El Aissami’s arrest took time because of the various steps in the investigation. The top prosecutor tied the former minister to the alleged scheme that involved selling Venezuelan oil through the country’s cryptocurrency oversight agency in parallel to the state-run Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA.

Saab last year said the oversight agency allegedly signed contracts for the loading of crude on ships “without any type of administrative control or guarantees,” violating legal regulations. He said that