US indictment shines light on Venezuela oil trade

An indictment unveiled by the US Department of Justice provides a window into how Venezuelan oil allegedly is sold to foreign buyers in contravention of US sanctions, including through all-cash payments and front companies in Germany and the UAE.

US federal prosecutors today accused Russian nationals Yury Orekhov and Artem Uss, who own Germany-based company NDA, of orchestrating a scheme since 2019 to purchase oil from Venezuelan state-owned PdV on behalf of an unnamed major Russian aluminum company and an unnamed company described as the "largest state-owned oil refining, gas and petrochemical conglomerate" in China. Spanish national Juan Fernando Serrano, a chief executive at an unnamed UAE-based oil trading company, has also been indicted, together with three other Russian nationals and a Venezuelan trader.

US sanctions in place since 2019 prohibit the use of the US banking system and US dollars to conduct trade in Venezuelan oil. The defendants allegedly ordered tankers carrying Venezuelan oil to switch off transponders, falsified cargo documents to conceal its origin or presented the oil as a cargo of food or electronics. NDA and other shell companies were allegedly used as middlemen to allow continued use of US banks to process the transactions. In at least one case alleged by the indictment, Orekhov and Uss made a cash payment for a 550,000 bl oil cargo in November 2021.

The defendants allegedly would purchase Venezuelan oil at a 40pc discount and, according to an indictment, on at least one occasion offered a $6/bl kickback to the team members purchasing the oil on behalf of the unnamed company in China.

The indictment does not provide an explanation on whether the unnamed Russian aluminum company purchased Venezuelan oil for itself or for resale at profit. Orekhov is described as a former employee of the Russian company and Uss allegedly is an associate of the company's owner, also unnamed but described as a "Russian billionaire and industrialist" under US sanctions.

Not naming specific individuals and companies that are not directly accused of breaking the law in an indictment is customary in the US' prosecutorial practice. But clues provided by the Department of Justice — including the fact that the aluminum company was on the US sanctions list in 2018-19 — point to aluminum conglomerate Rusal and its owner, Oleg Deripaska.

Orekhov was arrested today in Germany and Uss was detained by the Italian police. Both are awaiting extradition to the US, the Department of Justice said. Uss is the son of Russia's Krasnoyarsk province governor Alexander Uss, according to the indictment.

NDA and PdV were not immediately available to comment.

By Haik Gugarats