Financial Fraud: Matthias Krull And Gustavo Adolfo Hernandez Frieri Was Arrested For Real Estate And Sophisticated False-Investment Schemes

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<h2>Two Members of Billion-Dollar Venezuelan Money Laundering Scheme Arrested<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Two alleged participants in a billion-dollar international scheme to launder funds embezzled from Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA using Miami&comma; Florida real estate and sophisticated false-investment schemes were arrested yesterday and today&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>U&period;S&period; Attorney Benjamin Greenberg of the Southern District of Florida&comma; Assistant Attorney General Brian A&period; Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division&comma; and Special Agent in Charge Mark Selby of U&period;S&period; Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations’ &lpar;HSI&rpar; Miami Field Office made the announcement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Matthias Krull&comma; 44&comma; a German national and Panamanian resident&comma; and Gustavo Adolfo Hernandez Frieri&comma; 45&comma; a Colombian national and naturalized U&period;S&period; citizen&comma; were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit money laundering&period; The complaint also charged Francisco Convit Guruceaga&comma; 40&semi; Jose Vincente Amparan Croquer&comma; aka&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Chente&comma;” 44&semi; Carmelo Urdaneta Aqui&comma; 44&semi; and Abraham Eduardo Ortega&comma; 51&comma; all Venezuelan nationals&semi; and Hugo Andre Ramalho Gois&comma; 39&comma; a Portuguese national&comma; and Marcelo Federico Gutierrez Acosta y Lara&comma; 40&comma; a Uruguayan national&comma; for their alleged participation in the scheme&period; These defendants remain at large&period; Krull was arrested last night in Miami and had his initial court appearance earlier today before U&period;S&period; Magistrate Judge Alicia M&period; Otazo-Reyes in Miami&period; Krull is scheduled to have a pre-trial detention hearing on July 30&comma; and a preliminary hearing on Aug&period; 8&period; Frieri was arrested today in Sicily&comma; Italy and faces extradition proceedings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to the criminal complaint&comma; the conspiracy in this case allegedly began in December 2014 with a currency exchange scheme that was designed to embezzle around &dollar;600 million from PDVSA&comma; obtained through bribery and fraud&comma; and the defendants’ efforts to launder a portion of the proceeds of that scheme&period; By May 2015&comma; the conspiracy had allegedly doubled in amount to &dollar;1&period;2 billion embezzled from PDVSA&period; PDVSA is Venezuela’s primary source of income and foreign currency &lpar;namely&comma; U&period;S&period; Dollars and Euros&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The complaint alleges that surrounding and supporting these false-investment laundering schemes are complicit money managers&comma; brokerage firms&comma; banks and real estate investment firms in the United States and elsewhere&comma; operating as a network of professional money launderers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The alleged conspirators include former PDVSA officials&comma; professional third-party money launderers&comma; and members of the Venezuelan elite&comma; sometimes known as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;boliburgués&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The charges contained in the complaint are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This case is the result of the ongoing efforts by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force &lpar;OCDETF&rpar; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Operation Money Flight&comma;” a partnership between and among federal&comma; state and local law enforcement agencies&period; The OCDETF mission is to identify&comma; investigate and prosecute high-level members of drug trafficking enterprises&comma; bringing together the combined expertise and unique abilities of federal&comma; state and local law enforcement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr&period; Greenberg and Mr&period; Benczkowski commended the investigative efforts of HSI Miami&comma; HSI London&comma; HSI Rome and HSI Madrid in this matter&period; The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney Francisco R&period; Maderal of the Southern District of Florida’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section and Assistant Chief David Johnson of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance in this matter and U&period;S&period; Customs and Border Protection&comma; the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom and Italian&comma; Spanish and Maltese law enforcement authorities provided assistance&period; The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting all FCPA matters&period; Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;criminal&sol;fraud&sol;fcpa&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www&period;flsd&period;uscourts&period;gov or on http&colon;&sol;&sol;pacer&period;flsd&period;uscourts&period;gov&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-sdfl&sol;pr&sol;two-members-billion-dollar-venezuelan-money-laundering-scheme-arrested">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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