Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta corrupción. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta corrupción. Mostrar todas las entradas

martes, 2 de junio de 2015

El camarada esquivel, por Domingo Alberto Rangel Jr.

Aunque en nuestro país abunden los presidencialistas, ni a punta de pistola me añado a quienes cobijados en tal manera de pensar, creen que los problemas del fútbol se resuelven con la destitución y encarcelamiento de Rafael Esquivel.
Si lo quieren más claro, ni en la FVF ni en Miraflores se van a resolver los problemas, graves, que los hay, cambiando de abusador.
No es cosa de “hombres con guáramo” o “mujeres con ovarios” porque sin cambios profundos en nuestra sociedad, que es lo vital, simplemente seguiremos en caída libre.
Y para quien crea boberías, aclaro que nunca me gustaron las historias sobre el “sobrado” Esquivel, evidente maestro del soborno a quien no estoy defendiendo porque recursos tiene para contratar abogados.
Rafael Esquivel, como todo embaucador, aparte de simpático, fue sobre todo especialista en conocer el precio de cada directivo de asociación que votó a su favor para gobernar la FVF durante 28 años.
Al borracho lo sobornaba con whisky, a quien gustaba hacerse acompañar de prostitutas, Esquivel le servía de celestino y al directivo que le gustaba viajar gratis al exterior, siempre lo invitaba.
Todos tuvieron su precio y todos lo sabían.
Esquivel es sin embargo la punta del iceberg en materia de la dirigencia deportiva y sus porquerías y vale la pena comentar ¿a ver cuando comienzan a flotar las cochinadas de la clase política que ha derrochado una oportunidad como la que le cayó del cielo a nuestro país y que no le ha tocado a ninguna nación de este hemisferio?
El país hipócrita ahora “si cree” que el compatriota Esquivel parece culpable, junto a otros directivos mundiales de la FIFA, de varios delitos como lavado de dinero, cohecho, soborno, venta de partidos y de torneos o copas. Sin embargo, durante todos estos años a nadie le extrañó la inmensa cantidad de dinero que manejaba, para ser el Presidente de una Federación de fútbol “majunche”, para decirlo con la palabra que su amigo del alma, Hugo Chávez, le endilgó a Henrique Capriles.
El país ahora “se entera” de que el camarada Esquivel, sinvergüenza hasta dormido, montó en Margarita, a contrapelo de lo que aconsejan los expertos, un centro de entrenamiento de alta competencia. Que el terreno se lo compró a un hermano. Con evidente sobre precio y que la FIFA lo pagó 2 veces, sin incluir la parte del presupuesto nacional que allí se ha gastado.
El país ahora comenzará a preguntarse, “un poco tarde”, cómo fue qué en pleno auge petrolero nos otorgaron la Copa América.
A un país sin estadios, liga profesional, clubes o un futbolista capaz de  provocar la envidia, digamos de Messi.
Se hablará de los sobre precios y la piratería, de constructores, de la FIFA, la CONMEBOL y la FVF, que permitieron juegos en estadios aún sin terminar, como el de Barquisimeto, plaza donde la LVBP, más seria, nunca permitió que allí se jugara una Serie del Caribe porque allí había muchas carencias.
Como estamos ante una elección saldrán a relucir las fotos de Esquivel abrazado con Hugo Chávez. Se darán cuenta los bobalicones de la milagrosa multiplicación de chavistas propietarios o jefazos de clubes de fútbol que dan pérdidas, pero que no se venden como para fortalecer las acusaciones de lavado de dinero que ahora afloran en un mundo hipócrita que no acaba de entender, que si eliminando la prohibición se acaba el lavado, la violencia y quizás los malos gobernantes, pero ese es otro tema.
Lo importante no sería que los aspirantes a diputados ahora “descubran” que el camarada Esquivel, que a lo mejor termina como “Patriota Cooperante” pero de Obama, era chavista. Como seguramente antes fue adeco o copeyano porque sus vagabunderías –también los éxitos- duraron 28 años.
Importante sería que nuestra sociedad, a raíz del escándalo Esquivel, aprendiera al menos aquella lección del Libertador que desaconseja los mandatos largos porque prostituyen al pueblo y facilitan que los gobernantes metan la mano en los presupuestos, adecuación de la frase a estos tiempos que corren, por cuenta propia.
Importante que aparte de lanzarse acusaciones que a nada llegaran, los aspirantes a dirigir este barco que se hunde, discutieran cosas más serias y le dejaran a Esquivel a los estadounidenses que fueron sus acusadores aunque hay quien dice que Blatter, otra joya, al saberse investigado, lanzó al pajón a sus compinches.
Cosa seria, por ejemplo que nuestro país solo ejercen 15 médicos patólogos, mal pagados.
Ocho en Caracas y siete para el resto del territorio y que eso afecta la aplicación de Justicia, sobre todo en los casos donde se involucran las leyes que protegen a las mujeres, los ancianos y menores.
Cosa seria y para espantarse, saber que la rama financiera de los seguros corre peligro mortal porque el gobierno rojito le debe a las reaseguradoras los dólares de al menos cuatro años.
Este último tema es para especialistas, obvio, pero, a nosotros nos basta con saber que en caso de un siniestro catastrófico, digamos un terremoto, las reaseguradoras no van a pagar y las aseguradoras tampoco porque irán a la quiebra… entonces quedarán los afectados “con el trasero sobre la tierra”… como les sucedió a los pobres haitianos pero por otros motivos.
Por supuesto que estos temas no le interesan a los gemelos polarizados, los del gobierno y los de las oposiciones que a fin de cuentas y concluyo, tienen mucha suerte y con ello cuentan: Por ejemplo, el diferendo entre Leopoldo López y la MUD “tapó” mediáticamente el escándalo de maese Blatter, pero el de la FIFA suiza “tapa” las tracalerías del camarada Esquivel y los videos, trucados o no, que el gobierno exhibe como si fuesen filmes dignos del Oscar, que versan sobre supuestas conversaciones íntimas de dirigentes de la oposición tachirense “taparán” lo que pueda venir en los próximos días.
Leopoldo y la multitud que asistió a una extraña protesta, donde no señalaron soluciones pero si franelas del equipo nacional español de Fútbol, cortes “de coleta” y otras depilaciones callejeras, logró de hecho dividir la oposición, quedándose VP con la mayoría del “piso” que es la antigua clase media ahora empobrecida.
Leopoldo gana, pero la MUD a costa de revelar su alma colaboracionista, se quita el chantaje de Leopoldo y también gana, poco es verdad, pero a fin de cuentas tampoco se le pueden exigir peras al olmo.
Pero Nicolás Maduro también gana porque en esta gallera y circo no solo se olvidaron del camarada Esquivel, sino que tampoco se discuten los verdaderos problemas y sus posibles soluciones.
Como en “el puente de Avignon” todos bailan, todos ganan… menos la sociedad venezolana que avanza “esperanzada” al precipicio…
Twitter: @DomingoAlbertoR

Email: doalra@yahoo.com

martes, 2 de septiembre de 2014

@Alekboyd / INFODIO Adam Kaufmann & Peter Fritsch: Derwick's newest associates


sábado, 9 de agosto de 2014

[English] @alekboyd / Infodio / The Wall Street Journal does Derwick Associates

Tomado de Infodio.com con el permiso del autor, Alek Boyd, su más reciente artículo sobre la reseña del Wall Street Journal sobre el escándalo de corrupción de la mafia Convit- Guruceaga-Betancourt - Lopez y compañía. 
Vale la pena también leer el artículo de prensa del periodista Alfredo Meza para el diario El país de España: http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2014/08/09/actualidad/1407540747_507459.html

Los dejamos con el artículo en inglés de alek Boyd 

Finally, a major publication like the Wall Street Journal picked up on the gargantuan corruption racket that Derwick Associates has been involved in in Venezuela. In "Venezuelan Energy Company Investigated in U.S.
Derwick Associates Is Probed by U.S., New York Agencies for Possible Bribery, Banking Violations
", the WSJ goes to town on some of the issues readers of this blog have been aware of for quite some time:

NEW YORK—Federal and New York City prosecutors opened preliminary investigations into a Venezuelan company that became one of that country's leading builders of power plants during the administration of President Hugo Chávez, as well as into a Missouri-based company that played a key role in its success, according to people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Manhattan district attorney's office are probing Derwick Associates, a Venezuelan company awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts in little more than a year to build power plants in Venezuela, shortly after the country's power grid began to sputter in 2009, the people familiar with the matter said.

ProEnergy Services, a Sedalia, Mo.-based engineering, procurement and construction company that sold dozens of turbines to Derwick and helped build the plants, is also under investigation, these people said.

The probes are in their initial phases, the people said, and it is possible both investigations could be closed without criminal charges being brought.

Derwick Associates President Alejandro Betancourt in his Caracas, Venezuela, headquarters.

"Neither Derwick nor its principals have been contacted by any U.S. law enforcement agency," said Derwick President Alejandro Betancourt, in a statement provided by lawyer Adam Kaufmann. "We therefore question whether Derwick is the focus of any active investigation. In the event we are contacted by a law enforcement agency, we will cooperate fully. We are a transparent company and have nothing to hide."

A ProEnergy representative declined to comment on any investigation and said the company "is committed to doing business in full compliance with all applicable laws and to cooperating fully with regulatory and legal inquiries."

Manhattan prosecutors are investigating Derwick and ProEnergy for possible violations of New York banking law, people familiar with the matter said.

Meanwhile, people familiar with the matter said prosecutors in the Justice Department's criminal fraud section are reviewing the actions of Derwick and ProEnergy for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits offering foreign government officials improper payments in exchange for a business advantage.

Federal prosecutors are scrutinizing the difference between the prices ProEnergy charged Derwick for its equipment and the prices Derwick ultimately charged the Venezuelan government, one person familiar with the matter said. The person said that in some past FCPA cases, excessive margins have been used to conceal bribes to foreign officials.

A lawyer for Derwick voluntarily contacted and met with federal prosecutors last summer to discuss the FCPA investigation, a person familiar with the matter said. Those prosecutors haven't requested documents from Derwick, the person said.

"As we understand it, there has been a long-running investigation into ProEnergy, but that doesn't equate to an investigation into Derwick," Mr. Kaufmann wrote in a letter to the Journal.

In Caracas, Mr. Betancourt said Derwick didn't bribe any Venezuelan officials. He said Derwick won the contracts through competitive bidding because it made superior offers. He also said the company's margins were consistent with general industry practice and reflected the high financial risks taken on by Derwick during a difficult time to do business in Venezuela.

A spokesman at Venezuela's information ministry declined to comment, while spokesmen at the electricity and energy ministries didn't return calls seeking comment.

Mr. Betancourt and a cousin, Pedro Trebbau, registered Derwick in Venezuela in 2009 and drew the attention of opponents of the Chávez regime because of the large volume of business they did with the government.

Otto Reich, the top State Department official for Latin America during the administration of President George W. Bush, filed a civil lawsuit in New York federal court last year, alleging Derwick's founding cousins damaged his consulting business by falsely spreading the word that he was working for them. The lawsuit alleges Derwick and the company's owners, among others, obtained contracts to build power stations in return for paying multimillion-dollar bribes to senior Venezuelan officials.

Mr. Kaufmann, a partner with Lewis Baach PLLC, said the lawsuit is part of a smear campaign against Derwick, motivated by politics and family squabbles, and lawyers for Messrs. Betancourt and Trebbau have moved to dismiss it. "My clients categorically deny any allegations of paying bribes to anyone," Mr. Kaufmann said. "But for the damage it has caused, Reich's lawsuit is laughable, and his allegations are wholly without evidentiary foundation," he wrote in a letter to the Journal.

The Manhattan district attorney's office, which has jurisdiction over violations of New York state banking laws, is interested in Derwick's relationship with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., according to people familiar with the matter. Investigators have interviewed potential witnesses about Eduardo Travieso, a childhood friend of Mr. Trebbau who worked at J.P. Morgan and served as Derwick's banker there, according to people familiar with the matter.

In March 2013, Mr. Travieso resigned from J.P. Morgan. In a report made public by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an industry watchdog, J.P. Morgan alleged Mr. Travieso had acted in a manner "inconsistent with the firm's policies and procedures and may have violated applicable regulatory requirements, including using his residential address as the mailing address for certain customer communications."

Finra, which reported this year that it has made a preliminary determination to bring disciplinary action against Mr. Travieso for "potential violations" of certain rules, declined to comment, as did J.P. Morgan.

Attempts to reach Mr. Travieso through his father, a Caracas lawyer, were unsuccessful. A message to Mr. Travieso sent through his LinkedIn account went unanswered. Mr. Travieso's lawyer declined to comment.

There's a couple of points I would like to make. Uncle Sam has been a keen reader of my writings since vcrisis.com days, that is at least 10 years. U.S. Federal Agencies have been gathering information on Derwick-like Venezuelan thugs for a very long time. Just imagine the sort of files they must have compiled over the years. So when the WSJ dares to print that Derwick Associates is being probed, you can bet top dollar that: 1) there's truth to claims published by me and others about possible investigations into corruption scandals involving American companies in Venezuela; 2) these investigations take time, and are most certainly helped by companies, such as Derwick Associates, that go around suing, threatening, censoring, and rubbing their ill gotten wealth on everyone's faces; 3) regardless of what Derwick Associates claims, to the effect that they are "a transparent company and have nothing to hide", the fact is no authority, much less a number of them, would have launched an investigation into Derwick's activities based on false information, for what the WSJ did not print is that the FBI, the IRS, the Treasury and the SEC are also on Derwick's case.

So let me put it publicly, for Derwick's attentive reading: no Venezuelan can get the FBI, the IRS, the Treasury, DoJ, DoS, SEC, plus Federal and New York prosecutors to join in a "smear campaign" against you. This, you brought upon yourselves, when you had the fantastic idea of suing a Venezuelan bank in New York, and then in Florida, and after that you instructed Hector Torres to threaten all and sundry who dared report the case. And before you go claiming again through your new lawyer -it seems like you guys have a weakness for lawyers that have a disconnect between mouth and brain- that this is a "meritless, blogger-conspiracy financed by Oscar Garcia Mendoza", do have at the very least the presence of mind of remembering that award-winning journalist Cesar Batiz, at the time working for Ultimas Noticias (when it was "independent"), was the one who exposed your corrupt deals with former school friends, through which you started getting contracts from Venezuelan public institutions. 

Derwick Associates never won "competitive bids". In the multiple occasions that Batiz and Ultimas Noticias asked Derwick Associates to reveal details of the contracts it had gotten from the Venezuelan State -bold added with the purpose of highlighting the fact that this is public money we are talking about- the company refused, repeatedly, to come clean. Derwick Associates has never been a "transparent company". Quite the opposite in fact.

There's only one Letter of Intent between Derwick Associates and BARIVEN -a PDVSA subsidiary- that has been published thus far, thanks to a leak to this site. The document reveals that both parties agreed to illegal confidentiality clauses and even waived Venezuela's legislation and jurisdiction over matters pertaining the contract. I would love to hear Derwick's new lawyer -Adam Kaufmann- explain, based on his former life as Chief Investigator for Manhattan's District Attorney's Office, how would a similar deal between a private company and U.S. public institutions be perceived according to current U.S. laws. It seems lost on Kaufmann that you can't bank on track record as a star employee of Manhattan's DA's Office and then question investigations of the very office upon which you've based your subsequent career.

Then there's the money laundering, in which JP Morgan has only been too happy to participate. JP Morgan not only laundered huge sums for Derwick: it also acted as mortgage provider AND proxy in a multimillion-dollar property purchase in New York, which, coincidentally, Derwick wants to dispose of now.

As of this writing, according to Venezuela's Contractors Registry Derwick Associates is suspended. None of its contracts have been finished. Despite Alejandro Betancourt's false claims, to the effect that thanks to his company Caracas no longer suffers from blackouts, these problems are far from over.

Derwick's arguments are lie upon lie upon lie, about credentials, about capacity, about expertise, about how it was contracted, about their executives, about their commercial relations with chavismo, about their wealth... There's hardly a word of truth in their statements that can be corroborated elsewhere. Only in Venezuela, and only with chavismo in power, could these people do what they've done. We should be grateful that American authorities have an interest in the likes of Derwick, and be equally grateful towards the WSJ for shining a light on corruption in our battered nation.

Now onwards and upwards towards the next target of my research: Roberto Rincón and his companies.