Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1019057
15 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 AUGUST 2018 ing clients to the bank, primarily from Venezuela. Described as a 'door opener', Krull already knew the co-conspirators dating back several years. Around 2016, one of them contacted Krull about laundering the pro- ceeds of the PDVSA foreign ex- change embezzlement scheme. Krull asked the conspirator for the source of the funds, to which he was given a copy of the PDVSA-Rantor loan con- tract. Later, Krull was sum- moned to Venezuela, where he was told that an urgent solution was needed to move the funds. There Krull met the other conspirators, including Madu- ro's stepsons, where an agree- ment was set out on how to use straw men to receive the cash, including a plan to launder the money through deposits made to a US financial institution. "Krull knew that he was par- ticipating in an illegal money laundering conspiracy and that the funds he was attempting to conceal and transact in were the proceeds of criminal activ- ity and bribery in particular," the HSI said. In November 2016, Krull met the HSI's confidential source in Panama where he said he need- ed an additional solution for US$200 held in the "European Financial Institution 1" – alleg- edly Portmann – in the name of the straw owner believed to be holding the cash for Maduro's stepsons. Krull sent the confidential source photos of the conspira- tors' passports, as well as for- warding an email with docu- ments from Portmann that had been sent to Amparan and other conspirators. In a Janu- ary 31, 2017 recorded call, the source informed Krull that he is in Miami and both discussed the laundering further. Krull acknowledged receiving money from the "European Financial Institution 1" accounts before, when he described how the wires work. Perhaps the most incriminat- ing evidence in the hands of the HSI are records obtained from email search warrants that con- firm the flow of the PVDSA funds to the defendants and other conspirators through "European Financial Institu- tion 1". One email included the attachment titled "Operation 600k" which contained the fol- lowing worksheets: 1. Worksheet 'Detailed In- come from PDVSA' shows ten transfers from PDVSA from December 29, 2014 through February 3, 2015 totaling €511.9 million. 2. Worksheet 'Summary of the 600 Operation shows that of the €511m, €20.4 million was assigned to 'European Finan- cial Institution 1' – allegedly Portmann – as a 4% fee; €227 million went to two co-conspir- ators; €159 million to the Ma- duro stepsons; and €36.9 mil- lion as the cost to convert the 7.2 million Bolivars into €511 million. 3. Another worksheet show- ing how the money moved: One conspirator moved €78.8 million through shell compa- nies Volber, Vontobel and Ven- con Holding; another sent doz- ens of US dollar wires through banks in Malta and Austria, including to aviation and yacht services and brokerage compa- nies in Miami, Florida. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Bolichicos' cash At the heart of the conspiracy: the oil revenues and a juked foreign exchange system in Venezuela, and the Panamanian secrecy: German banker Matthias Krull was a resident here Florida Homeland Security Investigations started its graft probe here, since a large sum of the laundered money was invested in Miami real estate on behalf of various conspirators VENEZUELA PANAMA Spain, Switzerland, and Malta feature in the money laundering network as having provided real estate fronts, use of financial institutions, and the Maltese wealth management firm currently under investigation Spain Switzerland Malta Clockwise from left to right: Colombian Gustavo Adolfo Hernandez Frieri, 45, a naturalised US citizen, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering; Portmann Capital Management's owner Kurt Portmann; Francisco Convit Guruceaga, 40, and German banker Matthias Krull