MIAMI, May 23, 2022 (AFP) – A U.S. court has sentenced a Venezuelan businessman to five years in prison for allegedly bribing a Venezuelan lawyer to pay nearly a million dollars to avoid a corruption trial. For court documents.
Carlos Urbano FermÃn, owner of several companies that provided goods and services to PDVSA’s subsidiaries, escaped two years in prison requested by a U.S. attorney.
Judge Robert Scola of Miami, Florida, accepted the defense request for a lighter sentence in order to recognize the defendant’s assistance in investigating other crimes in Venezuela.
Last year, Fermin pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in the United States.
The businessman also admitted to bribing a “high-ranking” Venezuelan lawyer to avoid a judicial inquiry into the terms of contracts signed with PDVSA between 2012 and at least 2016.
According to his court testimony, Fermin met with someone close to the lawyer in 2017, who promised he could avoid trial.
To get that legal protection, the businessman said he made nearly a million dollars in bank transactions from US banks to the lawyer.
According to the Miami Herald, the recipient of the money was former Venezuelan Attorney General Louisa Ortega, who was fired five years ago for accusing the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro of dictatorial overthrow.
Ortega, who left Venezuela in 2017 and now lives in Spain, denied the allegations last year, saying they were an attempt to tarnish the image of the Maduro government.
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