Wednesday, October 26, 2016 US ‘closing in on Venezuelan asset seizures’By Ben Bartenstein, Tiffany Kary & Alan KatzBloombergUS Federal prosecutors are preparing to charge several individuals and confiscate their property over the alleged looting of Venezuela’s state oil company in what may amount to one of the biggest asset seizures in the history of the United States. The people under investigation include current Venezuelan government officials, prominent businessmen and individuals suspected of involvement with cocaine-trafficking, two of the people said. Ricardo Hausmann, a Venezuelan economist at Harvard who would like to see the current government replaced, said US leadership in this area could prove important. “If the US were to say, ‘We’ve identified billions of dollars,’ it would have a devastating political effect at home with Venezuela’s current government,” he said. Roberto Rincón Fernández, a Venezuelan national living there, took part in a US$1-billion bribery scheme to secure contracts with PDVSA.

Source: Bueno Aires Herald October 26, 2016 01:30 UTC