Florida
Venezuelan media tycoon charged in bribery conspiracy
MIAMI (AP) — A Venezuelan media tycoon was charged Wednesday in federal court in Florida for what authorities say was his money laundering role in a conspiracy to siphon more than $1 billion from the oil company owned by the South American country’s government.
A federal grand jury in Miami returned an indictment charging Raul Gorrin in an alleged scheme to launder funds he obtained from Petróleos de Venezuela S.A, also known as PDVSA, in exchange of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribery payments to Venezuelan officials, the U.S. Justice Department said in a press release.
Gorrin, 56, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. He was previously charged in another other federal case and is considered a fugitive by the U.S.
Gorrin did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment. Howard Srebnick, a Miami-based attorney who has represented Gorrin in the past, did not immediately respond to a request for comment but previously has said the Venezuelan businessman denies any wrongdoing.
“Gorrin’s alleged conduct enriched corrupt government officials and exploited the U.S. financial system to facilitate these crimes,” said Principal Deputy Assistant General Nicole Argentieri. “The United States is not a safe haven for carrying out money laundering schemes or hiding criminal proceeds.”
Gorrin is among an elite group known in Venezuela as “boliburgueses,” people who amassed huge fortunes during the late President Hugo Chavez ‘s government. Their wealth has since drawn scrutiny from U.S. prosecutors, who have tied many to shady real estate deals, yacht purchases and other transactions meant to hide their fortunes.
Gorrin helped purchase Venezuela’s popular television network Globovision in 2013 and softened its anti-government coverage.
Between 2014 and 2018, Gorrin conspired with others to launder proceeds from the bribery scheme using the U.S. financial system as well as bank accounts in other countries, according to court documents.
The documents state that Gorrin and his co-conspirators paid millions of dollars in bribes to high-level Venezuelan officials to obtain foreign currency exchange loan contracts with PDVSA.
The laundering of illicit proceeds were directed in part to South Florida, where they were used to buy real estate as well as yachts and other luxury items. Gorrin and his co-conspirators used shell companies and offshore bank accounts to conceal the movement of the bribe payments and illicit funds, according to the documents.
Although he was not charged, Gorrin was also referred as “Conspirator 7” in another indictment filed at the federal court in Miami more than five years ago. In those court papers, “Conspirator 7” is identified only as the billionaire owner of a TV network in Venezuela. But two U.S. officials familiar with the case identified the person at the time as Raul Gorrin. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the allegations.
That case was linked to a scheme that started a decade ago and exploited a rigid currency system that Venezuela’s government had in place before the country fell into a political, social and economic crisis.
The scheme involved fake loan agreements with PDVSA designed to embezzle between $600 million and $1.2 billion from the company at a time of collapsing oil production. As part of that ongoing investigation, known as Operation Money Flight, numerous PDVSA officials and their European money managers have pleaded guilty or been charged with money laundering.
To facilitate the dealmaking, the conspirators paid out millions in bribes, including to family members of one unnamed official referred to as “Los Chamos” — Venezuelan slang for “the kids.” The “Chamos” are President Nicolas Maduro ‘s stepsons, the two U.S. officials previously told the AP.
Arizona
Suspect in shootings of Democratic office had over 120 guns in home
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona prosecutor said the man arrested in the shooting of a Democratic National Committee office in suburban Phoenix had more than 120 guns and over 250,000 rounds of ammunition in his home, leading law enforcement to believe he may have been planning a mass casualty event.
Maricopa County prosecutor Neha Bhatia said at Jeffrey Michael Kelly’s initial court appearance on Wednesday that federal agents told her about the large seizure made after Kelly’s arrest. Scopes, body armor and silencers were also found, she said. A machine gun was discovered in the car he was driving.
The sheer size of the cache led authorities to believe “this person was preparing to commit an act of mass casualty,” Bhatia said.
Police said Kelly, 60, allegedly fired BB pellets and then gunshots at the glass front door and a window of the Arizona Democrats’ field office in Tempe. Police found three .22-caliber bullet casings while searching Kelly’s trash, according to court documents.
Nobody was inside during the shootings in the early morning hours of Sept. 16, Sept. 23 and Oct. 6.
Kelly is also accused of hanging several political signs lined with razor blades on Tuesday in Ahwatukee, an affluent suburb of Phoenix where most voters have chosen Democrats in recent elections. Authorities said he also hung plastic bags holding a white powder labeled “biohazard” from those signs.
Authorities said the hand-painted signs were attached to palm trees and appeared to criticize Democrats and their presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Kelly was being held on three felony counts of acts of terrorism and four other counts related to the shootings, according to police. A $500,000 cash bond was set with a requirement for house arrest and an ankle monitor in the event he is able to raise that amount.
His attorney Jason Squires said Kelly was a retired aerospace engineer who at one time had top security clearance, had no criminal record and was not a flight risk.
Kelly’s next appearance was set for the morning of Oct. 29 in Maricopa County Superior Court.
The Tempe location was one of 18 Harris field offices in Arizona where Democrats gathered to organize Harris campaign efforts. It was shut down after the last shooting, police said.
Arizona is one of the battleground states where the competition between Harris and former President Donald Trump has been particularly intense.
Political violence has already marred the campaign season, with the Republican presidential nominee being targeted by assassination attempts at a campaign rally and at one of Trump’s Florida golf courses.
Venezuelan media tycoon charged in bribery conspiracy
MIAMI (AP) — A Venezuelan media tycoon was charged Wednesday in federal court in Florida for what authorities say was his money laundering role in a conspiracy to siphon more than $1 billion from the oil company owned by the South American country’s government.
A federal grand jury in Miami returned an indictment charging Raul Gorrin in an alleged scheme to launder funds he obtained from Petróleos de Venezuela S.A, also known as PDVSA, in exchange of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribery payments to Venezuelan officials, the U.S. Justice Department said in a press release.
Gorrin, 56, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. He was previously charged in another other federal case and is considered a fugitive by the U.S.
Gorrin did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment. Howard Srebnick, a Miami-based attorney who has represented Gorrin in the past, did not immediately respond to a request for comment but previously has said the Venezuelan businessman denies any wrongdoing.
“Gorrin’s alleged conduct enriched corrupt government officials and exploited the U.S. financial system to facilitate these crimes,” said Principal Deputy Assistant General Nicole Argentieri. “The United States is not a safe haven for carrying out money laundering schemes or hiding criminal proceeds.”
Gorrin is among an elite group known in Venezuela as “boliburgueses,” people who amassed huge fortunes during the late President Hugo Chavez ‘s government. Their wealth has since drawn scrutiny from U.S. prosecutors, who have tied many to shady real estate deals, yacht purchases and other transactions meant to hide their fortunes.
Gorrin helped purchase Venezuela’s popular television network Globovision in 2013 and softened its anti-government coverage.
Between 2014 and 2018, Gorrin conspired with others to launder proceeds from the bribery scheme using the U.S. financial system as well as bank accounts in other countries, according to court documents.
The documents state that Gorrin and his co-conspirators paid millions of dollars in bribes to high-level Venezuelan officials to obtain foreign currency exchange loan contracts with PDVSA.
The laundering of illicit proceeds were directed in part to South Florida, where they were used to buy real estate as well as yachts and other luxury items. Gorrin and his co-conspirators used shell companies and offshore bank accounts to conceal the movement of the bribe payments and illicit funds, according to the documents.
Although he was not charged, Gorrin was also referred as “Conspirator 7” in another indictment filed at the federal court in Miami more than five years ago. In those court papers, “Conspirator 7” is identified only as the billionaire owner of a TV network in Venezuela. But two U.S. officials familiar with the case identified the person at the time as Raul Gorrin. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the allegations.
That case was linked to a scheme that started a decade ago and exploited a rigid currency system that Venezuela’s government had in place before the country fell into a political, social and economic crisis.
The scheme involved fake loan agreements with PDVSA designed to embezzle between $600 million and $1.2 billion from the company at a time of collapsing oil production. As part of that ongoing investigation, known as Operation Money Flight, numerous PDVSA officials and their European money managers have pleaded guilty or been charged with money laundering.
To facilitate the dealmaking, the conspirators paid out millions in bribes, including to family members of one unnamed official referred to as “Los Chamos” — Venezuelan slang for “the kids.” The “Chamos” are President Nicolas Maduro ‘s stepsons, the two U.S. officials previously told the AP.
Arizona
Suspect in shootings of Democratic office had over 120 guns in home
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona prosecutor said the man arrested in the shooting of a Democratic National Committee office in suburban Phoenix had more than 120 guns and over 250,000 rounds of ammunition in his home, leading law enforcement to believe he may have been planning a mass casualty event.
Maricopa County prosecutor Neha Bhatia said at Jeffrey Michael Kelly’s initial court appearance on Wednesday that federal agents told her about the large seizure made after Kelly’s arrest. Scopes, body armor and silencers were also found, she said. A machine gun was discovered in the car he was driving.
The sheer size of the cache led authorities to believe “this person was preparing to commit an act of mass casualty,” Bhatia said.
Police said Kelly, 60, allegedly fired BB pellets and then gunshots at the glass front door and a window of the Arizona Democrats’ field office in Tempe. Police found three .22-caliber bullet casings while searching Kelly’s trash, according to court documents.
Nobody was inside during the shootings in the early morning hours of Sept. 16, Sept. 23 and Oct. 6.
Kelly is also accused of hanging several political signs lined with razor blades on Tuesday in Ahwatukee, an affluent suburb of Phoenix where most voters have chosen Democrats in recent elections. Authorities said he also hung plastic bags holding a white powder labeled “biohazard” from those signs.
Authorities said the hand-painted signs were attached to palm trees and appeared to criticize Democrats and their presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Kelly was being held on three felony counts of acts of terrorism and four other counts related to the shootings, according to police. A $500,000 cash bond was set with a requirement for house arrest and an ankle monitor in the event he is able to raise that amount.
His attorney Jason Squires said Kelly was a retired aerospace engineer who at one time had top security clearance, had no criminal record and was not a flight risk.
Kelly’s next appearance was set for the morning of Oct. 29 in Maricopa County Superior Court.
The Tempe location was one of 18 Harris field offices in Arizona where Democrats gathered to organize Harris campaign efforts. It was shut down after the last shooting, police said.
Arizona is one of the battleground states where the competition between Harris and former President Donald Trump has been particularly intense.
Political violence has already marred the campaign season, with the Republican presidential nominee being targeted by assassination attempts at a campaign rally and at one of Trump’s Florida golf courses.
