Bribes from Telefónica Venezuela were spent in San Bartolomé

A senior official in the Maduro government and an intermediary together with their families spent more than 1.1 million dollars on some vacation on the paradisiacal island of San Bartolomé thanks to 28 million dollars in bribes on behalf of Telefónica Venezuelaaccording to information published on Tuesday by the newspaper The Country.

The vacation itself cost more than $500,000, and the middleman spent around $605,000 on luxury watches and jewelry there, for the enjoyment of the high official and his wife, reports the Spanish media.

For this plot, Telefónica Venezuela, a subsidiary of the Spanish Telefónica, will pay a fine of more than 85.2 million dollars in the United States, where justice is investigating the case of bribery of two officials of the government of Nicolás Maduro and in which it is also Two intermediaries are involved. Judicial sources indicated that, thanks to all of them, the Venezuelan company was able to have preferential access to dollars in a currency auction.

Telefónica Venezuela reached a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the US justice system in exchange for paying a fine of 85.2 million dollars.

According to court documents, Telefónica Venezolana participated in 2014 in a currency auction sponsored by the government of Nicolás Maduro that allowed it to exchange bolivars for more than 110 million dollars, 65% of the funds that the Venezuelan government awarded in that auction.

To guarantee the change, Telefónica Venezuela recruited two suppliers who paid approximately $28.9 million to an intermediary, knowing that part of those funds would be paid as a “commission” to Venezuelan government officials through bank accounts in the United States. United, according to justice.

To hide those payments, Telefónica Venezolana covered the cost of the bribes by purchasing equipment from the two suppliers at inflated prices, according to the indictment.

“Telefónica Venezolana (…) agreed to line the pockets of corrupt Venezuelan officials to gain access to US currency and maintain its position in the Venezuelan telecommunications market,” said federal prosecutor Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York in a statement.

As part of the agreement, Telefónica Venezolana and the Spanish parent company committed to continue cooperating with the New York court in any ongoing or future criminal investigation that arises during the validity of the DPA.

Telefónica Venezuela will be monitored for three years

The company will be subject to special surveillance or supervision for a period of three years, the validity of the agreement it has reached with the Department of Justicein which he is in a situation of “conditional release of responsibility.” If at the end of those three years he has fulfilled his commitments, the Department of Justice will not file charges.

He also promised not to make statements that imply a rejection of his responsibility in the case. If you did, it would be considered a violation of the agreement. You must even ask for approval if you would like to send a statement or call a press conference to discuss the case.

The demands are multiple and subject the company – and its relationships with suppliers and contractors – to continuous examination. Last month, the board of directors of Telefónica Venezuela was examining the content of the agreement, by which it assumes obligations regarding anti-corruption training, related to its code of conduct, controls, internal policies and procedures and also the structure of its remuneration and bonus policy.

Regarding the latter, the agreement obliges Telefónica to implement “clear mechanisms to encourage” compliance with its code of conduct and anti-corruption guidelines. Among these incentives, it will be mandatory for the company to include “criteria relating to regulatory compliance in its remuneration and bonus system.”

To date, the identity of those involved in the corruption plot is unknown.