Spanish police arrested a former deputy Venezuelan energy minister Thursday on a U.S. warrant for alleged involvement in $1 billion bribery scheme involving Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA. Villalobos would be the first senior ex-official detained as part of a wide-ranging U.S. probe into corruption at PDVSA that has already led 10 businessmen to plead guilty for their roles in kickbacks to Venezuelan officials. In 2015, the U.S. Treasury Department accused a bank in Andorra of laundering some $2 billion stolen from PDVSA. Prosecutors in Houston declined to comment. PDVSA and Venezuela's information ministry did not comment when contacted by the AP.

Source: ABC News October 26, 2017 19:18 UTC