A businessman prosecuted for the looting of PDVSA has seven luxury apartments in Madrid

Omar Farías Luces, known as the Venezuelan insurance czar for having built a business emporium in this sector under the guidance of the country's former president, Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), and the state company Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA), acquired seven luxury homes in Madrid in 2010, when the looting of 2,000 million dollars (1,827 million euros) from the energy giant was carried out, according to a patrimonial investigation by EL PAÍS.

The businessman, who since 2018 has been among the thirty people prosecuted by an Andorra court for the colossal looting of the main public firm in the Latin American country, also invested 30 million dollars (27.4 million euros) in a private plane, a boat and two homes in the Dominican Republic, according to a confidential report from the Andorra Financial Intelligence Unit (Uifand) to which this newspaper has had access.

The document is dated December 2022.

The transactions for the purchase of these last properties were ordered from the Private Bank of Andorra (BPA), where the Venezuelan businessman piloted a racket of 12 accounts in the name of instrumental companies (without activity) created in Panama, Barbados and the Virgin Islands. British.

From these companies, Farías Luces earned tens of millions through internal transfers to

offshore

companies with accounts in the same bank investigated for the PDVSA looting.

Internal transfers within the same bank enjoy an opacity that transfers do not have.

At 62 years old, Farías Luces acquired seven luxury homes and four parking spaces in January 2010, through mortgages, in the same building on Claudio Coello Street in Madrid, in the heart of the Salamanca neighborhood. Known for its real estate boom as the capital's golden mile.

For the rehabilitation of these properties he made transfers to accounts of a construction company and a Spanish renovation company.

The sale price per square meter in the building currently amounts to 8,551 dollars (7,814 euros) and the seven properties - whose surface area ranges between 85 and 145 square meters - would exceed 6.5 million dollars (six million euros) in the emerging market. euros), according to the

Idealista

portal .

When asked by this newspaper, Farías defends the origin of his funds and emphasizes that he was already investigated in Venezuela without the justice of this country condemning him.

According to the insurance magnate, the choice of the BPA was due to a fiscal issue unrelated to the fact that this country was protected until 2017 by banking secrecy.

“The Banking System of the Principality of Andorra was not chosen because of a matter of secrecy, but because of its totally legal and transparent tax benefits that existed and even continue to exist and that made that jurisdiction attractive,” he says.

A 13 million dollar plane and a 15 million dollar ship

Farías Luces also purchased a plane from the US company Gulfstream Aerospace between 2006 and 2007. The contract between his firm Seguros Constitución and the company establishes a purchase price of 13.1 million dollars (12 million euros) at pay in five installments.

The Andorran police classify him as “suspicious” because part of the payment was made from the Andorran account of the Baluja International company.

The businessman also commissioned the construction of a ship for 15.3 million dollars (14 million euros) in 2010 from the Italian shipyard San Lorenzo.

The contract establishes six payments between June 2009 and May 2010 to the personal account of Farías Luces at the BPA.

And he spent $540,394 (493,990 euros) on various repairs - more than $200,000 went to renovate the hull and bow - of his yacht

Princess Claudia II

.

It is a mega-luxury boat made of aluminum with folding terraces and a

suite

with capacity for 10 guests and six crew members, according to the owner's website, San Lorenzo.

The purchase of Villa Any, a luxury home in Playa Juanillo, in the Cap Cana urbanization, an oasis of fine sand and turquoise waters located in Punta Cana, Dominican municipality of Higuey, also left traces in its Andorran accounts.

From the Pyrenean principality, he paid 239,966 dollars (219,248 euros) in 2010 as part of the construction project for this home.

Among the bank documentation appears a purchase option contract for 1.8 million dollars (1.6 million euros) for a

penthouse

apartment in the Torre Piantini on Porfirio Herrera Street, in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic.

Police are investigating a transfer of $330,000 (301,963 euros) allegedly related to this house.

The real estate item also includes a transfer of 230,000 dollars (210,142 euros) to acquire a property in Ecuador.

Investigators suspected this operation because it was formalized through a Panamanian company.

The passion for luxury is one of the constants of Farías Luces.

The businessman left $737,128 (673,486 euros) in December 2007 at the San Ignacio Jewelry Store in Caracas.

The establishment specializes in the distribution of watches from the Rolex, Cartier and Chopard brands, according to its website.

In July 2008, the insurance king paid $115,000 for half of a work by abstract artist Victor Vasarely, according to the Andorran Intelligence Unit.

The horse 'La Carrot' and Real Madrid

The transactions of the insurance king also reveal that this businessman close to Chavismo resorted to his banking network in Andorra to acquire

La Zanahoria

in December 2012 , a horse worth 200,000 dollars (182,785 euros) and pay 36,141 dollars (33,040 euros). ) to a Real Madrid account.

From the banking opacity of the BPA, Farías Luces also transferred 720,336 dollars (658,334 euros) to businessman Luis Mariano Rodríguez Cabello, alleged front man of Diego Salazar, cousin of the former Chavista Minister of Energy, former president of PDVSA and former ambassador to the UN Rafael Ramírez.

As if it were a well-oiled mechanism, the network that looted PDVSA operated between 2007 and 2012 and was made up of officials from the powerful state firm and former leaders of the first Chavista wave.

The former Vice Ministers of Energy of Venezuela Nervis Villalobos and Javier Alvarado were part of this organization under the microscope of suspicion for charging commissions of more than 10% to companies, especially Chinese, which were later awarded with energy contracts, as revealed this newspaper.

The group faces accusations in Andorra of money laundering in a banking establishment and membership in a criminal network.

The network hid its loot through a complicated web of accounts in the BPA.

And, through thirty opaque companies based in tax havens such as Switzerland or Belize, he moved the flow of funds that ended up in Andorra, a country of 78,000 inhabitants shielded until 2017 by banking secrecy and 7,400 kilometers from Caracas.

To avoid raising suspicions, he camouflaged his millionaire income under the umbrella of consulting jobs that, according to investigators, did not exist.

Along with PDVSA officials and former Chavista leaders, the Andorran justice system also prosecuted a dozen former directors and employees of the bank used to shelter the loot, the BPA.

The entity was intervened in March 2015 for an alleged crime of money laundering for opening dozens of accounts for the scheme without noting the status of its members of Politically Exposed Persons (PEP), which is how those are called in financial jargon. personalities who, due to their links with the Administration, must undergo special control to prevent money laundering.

investigacion@elpais.es

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