Switzerland's prosecutor is pursuing criminal probes in a massive graft at Venezuelan oil company PDVSA. It had quietly mothballed an initial investigation earlier this year.
The Bern-based prosecutor said it opened a criminal proceeding this month and one in July on suspicions of money laundering in connection to PDVSA, in a statement to finews.com on Tuesday. Both probes are against persons unknown. Switzerland had quietly halted a three-year-long PDVSA investigation in April.
PDVSA represents a graft of epic proportions: roughly $1.5 billion disappeared from the company's coffers between 2002 and 2014, according to investigative website «Infodio,» which chronicles the Venezuelan corruption. Numerous trails lead to Switzerland's and Liechtenstein's offshore banks, as finews.com reported on Monday.
Riches Vs Plunder
The plunder is set against hyperinflation, shortages of food and medicine, and unemployment created by the government of current president Nicolas Maduro. Swiss banks including Credit Suisse and its former subsidiary Clariden Leu, UBS, Julius Baer, EFG International, Compagnie Bancaire Helvetique, or CBH, Banca Zarattini, and Mirabaud have turned up in PDVSA.
Transparency International welcomed the Swiss probe. The anti-corruption campaigner had criticized Switzerland's mothballing of the initial investigation, saying «it raised the question of whether the Swiss attorney general exhausted all avenues before halting the criminal investigation,» Swiss TI head Martin Hilti told finews.com.
Other Avenues
In shutting the 2017 probe, Swiss prosecutors had reasoned that they weren't getting any help out of Venezuela. There, Maduro is holding on to power despite opposition leader Juan Guaido being recognized as an interim president last year by dozens of countries including the U.S.
Other investigative options, TI's Hilti noted, include an open legal channel for exchanging information with the U.S., which has taken the lead on Venezuela; trawling Swiss channels for predicate offenses to money-laundering; or Finma’s own investigations, which have sanctioned two banks (Credit Suisse and Julius Baer) thus far.
