2023-07-31 04:11:00
Nacionales.- The plot would have been promoted by at least a dozen reputable businessmen from recognized families in Colombia, who used their business network to legitimize operations to smuggle crude oil from Venezuela that was mixed with oil stolen from an Ecopetrol pipeline to later sell it to the state
Colombian media are beginning to specify details regarding an investigation headed by the Colombian Attorney General’s Office into a corruption plot involving businessmen who defrauded the state-owned company Ecopetrol to export hydrocarbons mixed with smuggled Venezuelan crude.
According to the text of the Prosecutor’s accusation, the plot worked as a result of illegal imports of crude oil from Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), through shipments that were registered as originating from Panama or Curaçao. These imports were received by the Colombian company Swiss Terminal de Barranquilla SAS, where they were mixed with oil stolen from the Caño Limón-Coveñas pipeline, belonging to the Colombian state company Ecopetrol, by criminal groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Once this mixture of smuggled Venezuelan and stolen Colombian crude was prepared, the ship continued on its way to Ecopetrol, which received it as a regular import, supposedly without any prior knowledge of the operation. In this way, oil of illicit origin was “legalized” and ended up being exported by Ecopetrol itself to Singapore, Amsterdam and other ports in Asia and Europe.
The plot would have been promoted by at least a dozen reputable businessmen from recognized families in Colombia, who used their business network to legitimize these crude oil smuggling operations from Venezuela —a country with which business might not be done due to the sanctions imposed by United States—and stole directly from Ecopetrol.
A key to discovering the corruption plot was precisely the Venezuelan crude, since in technical analysis by Ecopetrol it was discovered that the mixture contained hydrocarbons that did not come from Colombia. In fact, they considered that Venezuelan oil was “contaminating” Colombian oil.
According to the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, this is “one of the biggest robberies to the State” in the country’s history and it is estimated that Ecopetrol did not receive an amount of approximately 80 million dollars due to these fraudulent operations.
“This investigation by the Dijín (Directorate of Judicial Investigation) shows one of the biggest robberies to the Colombian state. Nearly 80 million dollars in oil were stolen and the criminals were “good people” from the wealthiest sectors of the country. It must be investigated whether the theft had support from within Ecopetrol,” the president said.
On May 19, the authorities ordered the seizure of more than a hundred assets of the defendants, valued at approximately 1.3 trillion pesos (regarding 330 million dollars) in an attempt to recover around 360,000 million pesos, which would be equivalent to the amount of the embezzlement. The seizure included boats, buildings, summer houses, farms and even a Porsche vehicle.
One of the key names in the investigation is Hernando Silva Bickenbach, legal representative of Niman Commerce, one of the intermediary companies of the companies in charge of fraudulently importing oil.
Jaime Fernández Uribe also appears as a transcendental figure in the scheme, who is described in the indictment as the marketer of shady hydrocarbons. According to El Tiempo, Fernández Uribe worked for Ecopetrol and even appears as a state pensioner. He is a native of Barrancabermeja, he studied Systems Engineering and in his networks he continues to appear as an “assistant” at Ecopetrol.
The role of Fernández Uribe within the network, says the indictment, was to market hydrocarbons: “He acquired them from countries like Venezuela and they were entered into the national territory fraudulently.”
*With information from El Tiempo and Week
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