Hugo Chavez’s nurse and bodyguard are sentenced to 15 years in prison each

Former National Treasurer of Venezuela Claudia Patricia Diaz Guillen and her husband, Adrian Jose Velasquez Figueroawere sentenced this Wednesday in USA to 15 years in jail and three years probation each on money laundering charges.

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In addition, they must restitute 136 million dollars and pay a $75,000 fine eachas announced by the judge William P. Dimitrouleas in Miami.

The Prosecutor’s Office had requested sentences of no less than 23 years and 5 months in jail for her and 19 years and five months for him.

Both Venezuelan citizens were extradited from Spaina country of which she is also a national, in 2022 and in December of that same year they were found guilty of money laundering: she on two charges and the one on three.

Diaz Guillen and Velasquez Figueroa They were trusted people Hugo Chavez They are known as thenurse” and the “bodyguard” of the president of Venezuela who died in 2013- and settled in Spain in 2016, they allege, because they were persecuted by the current Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.

The Prosecutor’s Office accused them of having made a fortune of 136 million dollars with a corruption network that took advantage of the fact that she was national treasurer (2011-2013) to benefit from the exchange control system in force in Venezuela at that time.

That is the amount that, according to the judge Dimitrouleasthey must restitute, in addition to paying a fine of $150,000 between the two.

In a document incorporated into the judicial record of the case, the former national treasurer of Venezuela asked “compassion“to the judge at the time of imposing sentence and stressed that he would have liked”to collaborate” with the US but could not do so because he lacked the information that was requested.

Diaz Guillen and her husband pleaded not guilty to the charges against them and did not reach an agreement with the prosecutionas did, on the contrary, another Venezuelan, former national treasurer and subject to US justice, Alejandro Andrade Cedenoinvolved in the corruption and bribery plot than them.

Andrade Cedeño, who took up residence in the US after Chávez’s death, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018, as part of a deal that included $1 billion in asset forfeiture.

The main defendant in this case, the Venezuelan businessman Raul Gorrin Belisarioowner and president of the channel Globovisiónis sought by the United States Justice in relation to the same facts.

Gorrín was indicted on August 16, 2017 in the Southern District of Florida with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)another of conspiracy to commit money laundering and nine more for money laundering.

The indictment alleges that Belisarius Sparrow paid millions of dollars in bribes to two top Venezuelan officials –Diaz Guillen and Andrade Cedenor- to obtain the rights to carry out currency exchange transactions with favorable rates.

In addition to making money transfers to officials, Belisarius Sparrow he allegedly paid them expenses related to private jets, yachts, residences, championship horses, luxury watches and a fashion line.

To hide bribes, Belisarius Sparrow made payments through multiple shell companies and allegedly partnered with others to acquire the Peravia Bankin the Dominican Republic.

He is also Venezuelan Gabriel Arturo Jimenez Arayex-owner of Banco Peravia in the Dominican Republicwas sentenced in USA to three years in prison in 2019 for conspiracy to launder money.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.