Son-in-law of top opponent of Venezuela's president pleads guilty to US money laundering charges
The son-in-law of a prominent Venezuelan opposition leader has pleaded guilty to money laundering charges for his role in a vast bribery conspiracy to siphon over a billion dollars from the state-owned oil company
MIAMI — The son-in-law of a prominent Venezuelan opposition leader has pleaded guilty to money laundering charges for his role in a vast bribery conspiracy to siphon $1.2 billion from the state-owned oil company.
As part of his plea agreement announced Tuesday in federal court in Miami, Fernando Vuteff admitted to earning at least $4.1 million from a Spanish real estate company and financial institutions in Europe and Malta used to launder money on behalf of several Venezuelan government insiders.
Brian H. Bieber, an attorney for Vuteff, told The Associated Press that his client “accepted full responsibility for his conduct and the role he played in this case” but declined to comment further.
The Argentine-born asset manager is the latest caught up in a multiyear investigation, known as Operation Money Flight, targeting corruption inside Venezuela's oil industry, the source of virtually all the OPEC nation's export earnings.
Starting in 2006 until around 2018, Vuteff, who is the son-in-law of former Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, worked with a Swiss banker to recruit wealthy South American clients to offshore accounts in European banks. Among their clients was Raul Gorrin, a powerful media tycoon described in the plea agreement as a “billionaire businessman who was the owner of a Venezuelan television network.”
Gorrin was charged separately in 2018 for his role in the alleged conspiracy. According to investigators, the conspirators ginned up a currency-exchange scheme using fake loan agreements with the oil
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