International cartels stop at nothing to evade the law, relying on private companies and individuals to help carry out their criminal deeds.
Take US pilot Michol Orsini. In 2017, he was contracted to fly former Venezuelan oil minister Tareck El Aissami, accused by the US of drug trafficking. US Homeland Security Agents paid him a visit, advising him to let his boss know whenever he flew El Aissami.
Which he duly did. Until one day, he got scared and decided to keep his mouth shut.
Orsini was charged with violating sanctions. He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Just another shameful enabler, caught up in the murky world of crime and corruption.
It’s a world the US and Europe are well aware of. They’ve hit Venezuela with sanctions since 2006, including freezing assets and blocking oil imports.
However, Venezuelan criminals are getting help to swerve these sanctions. A recent investigation by El Pais and Armando.info uncovered a shady international network involving dozens of people and companies across 30 different countries.
The multi-million-dollar scheme uses humanitarian aid as a disguise to transfer massive amounts of oil, money and other resources.
Shockingly, even US companies are involved in helping Venezuela evade sanctions, with shady dealings involving US-owned firms, Iranian-built tankers and oil refineries off the coast of the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao.
Once a major shipping hub for Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, the island’s Bullenbaai terminal has recently been reactivated by Curaçao’s state-owned refining company and the Caribbean Petroleum Refinery – owned by two Venezuelan-American dual nationals – in a bid to evade sanctions.
Meanwhile, several wealthy oil brokers, including a Russian billionaire, a Venezuelan media magnate and a Spanish businessman, have been accused of oil smuggling and money laundering.
It’s alleged that the group were using phantom oil tankers to disguise transportation and cryptocurrency to hide payments.
All of this has led to the US upping the stakes in a bid to crack down on oil smuggling and other criminal activity. So much so, that anyone involved, even unwittingly, is being held to account.
The EU has followed suit, with a new law designed to enforce EU sanctions across all member states. The law will penalize countries that fail to freeze funds or enforce travel bans, and companies that do business in violation of sanctions.
Ignorance is no defense, which points to the importance of being wise to the rule of law. That’s where we come in.
The Owl’s team of expert investigators work tirelessly to protect your business. We bring geopolitical understanding and insight to help keep your company on the right side of the law.
After all, the world is complex. You need the right allies by your side.
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