VenezuelaMinister And Former Vice President Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah Charged With Violations

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/venezuelan-minister-and-former-vice-president-tareck-zaidan-el-aissami-maddah-charged

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 8, 2019

Venezuelan Minister And Former Vice President Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah Charged With Violations Of The Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Angel M. Melendez, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), announced today that former Venezuelan Vice President TARECK ZAIDAN EL AISSAMI MADDAH (“EL AISSAMI”) and Venezuelan businessman SAMARK JOSE LOPEZ BELLO were charged in Manhattan federal court with criminal violations of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (“Kingpin Act”) and sanctions imposed in February 2017 by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) pursuant to the Kingpin Act. Related charges under the Kingpin Act were also filed against VICTOR MONES CORO, ALEJANDRO MIGUEL LEON MAAL, MICHOLS ORSINI QUINTERO, and ALEJANDRO ANTONIO QUINTAVALLE YRADY. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein. MONES CORO and ORSINI QUINTERO were arrested this morning in Florida. MONES CORO appeared this morning before a United States Magistrate Judge in West Palm Beach, and ORSINI QUINTERO appeared this morning before a United States Magistrate Judge in Fort Lauderdale.
(snip)

EL AISSAMI became the Vice President of Venezuela in approximately January 2017. In February 2017, OFAC designated EL AISSAMI and LOPEZ BELLO as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Kingpin Act and related regulations. As a result of OFAC’s designations, U.S. persons are generally prohibited from, among other things, engaging in transactions with or providing services to EL AISSAMI and LOPEZ BELLO absent authorization from OFAC. EL AISSAMI and LOPEZ BELLO nevertheless worked with, among others, U.S. citizens MONES CORO and LEON MAAL, as well as ORSINI QUINTERO and QUINTAVALLE YRADY, who held U.S. visas at the time of the crimes, in an effort to violate and evade OFAC’s sanctions by obtaining travel services, including private jet charters for EL AISSAMI, LOPEZ BELLO, and their relatives and associates. EL AISSAMI and LOPEZ BELLO paid for these services at times through intermediaries who delivered bulk cash in Venezuela.

EL AISSAMI, LOPEZ BELLO, MONES CORO, and LEON MAAL used American Charter Services LLC and its affiliates, all U.S. companies, in connection with the transportation services provided to EL AISSAMI and LOPEZ BELLO in violation of the Kingpin Act and the OFAC sanctions. For example, in September 2018, MONES CORO used an American Charter Services account in the United States to pay expenses for an upcoming private flight by LOPEZ BELLO. EL AISSAMI, LOPEZ BELLO, MONES CORO, and LEON MAAL also used SVMI Solution, LLC, another U.S. company, to receive payments for transportation services provided to EL AISSAMI and LOPEZ BELLO in violation of the Kingpin Act and the OFAC sanctions, such as a July 2018 funds transfer sent from Manhattan, New York to an SVMI Solution account in Florida. Earlier this year, LEON MAAL helped EL AISSAMI charter a private flight from Vnukovo International Airport in Russia to Simón Bolívar International Airport in Venezuela on February 23, 2019.

* * *

EL AISSAMI, 44, of Venezuela, LOPEZ BELLO, 44, of Venezuela, MONES CORO, 51, of Florida, and LEON MAAL, 41, of Florida, are each charged in five counts: (1) conspiring to use American Charter Services LLC and SVMI Solution, LLC to engage in transactions prohibited by the Kingpin Act and related regulations, and to evade sanctions imposed by OFAC pursuant to the Kingpin Act and related regulations, (2) using American Charter Services LLC to engage in transactions prohibited by the Kingpin Act and related regulations, (3) using American Charter Services LLC to evade and attempt to evade sanctions imposed by OFAC pursuant to the Kingpin Act and related regulations, (4) using SVMI Solution, LLC to engage in transactions prohibited by the Kingpin Act and related regulations, and (5) using SVMI Solution, LLC to evade and attempt to evade sanctions imposed by OFAC pursuant to the Kingpin Act and related regulations. If convicted, each of the five counts carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, for a total maximum of 150 years in prison on all accounts faced by EL AISSAMI, LOPEZ BELLO, MONES CORO, and LEON MAAL.
(snip)

[GatoGordo]

1. They will never get him

Once the house of cards that is Chavismo falls, the Castroists will all be boarding their Falcon 8X's and making the short flight to Havana.

They will have to pay "rent" to the Cubans, but when you have pilfered trillions of dollars from Venezuela over 20 years, $1 million per month is chump change in order to live free and easy instead of sitting in a Federal cage for the rest of your life.