Earlier this week a criminal information was filed in the Southern District of Florida charging Orlando Alfonso Contreras Saab (a citizen of Venezuela) with conspiracy to violate the FCPA in connection with an alleged Venezuelan bribery scheme.
According to the information, Contreras Saab and his co-conspirators “unlawfully enrich[ed] themselves by engaging in a scheme to bribe Venezuelan officials to obtain and retain contracts and other business advantages, including obtaining mutli-million-dollar contracts with entities and instrumentalities owned and controlled by the Venezuelan government for the production, importation, and distribution of food and medicine to the people of Venezuela.”
As alleged in the information, Contreras Saab and others including:
- Alvaro Pulido Vargas (a citizen of Colombia)
- Co-conspirator 1 (a citizen of Colombia)
- Emmanuel Enrique Rubio Gonzalez (a citizen of Colombia and the son of Pulido)
- Carlos Rolando Lizcano Manrique; and
- Ana Guillermo Luis (a citizen of Venezuela and Spain)
conspired to pay bribes for the benefit of Venezuelan government officials including
- Jose Gregorio Vielma-Mora (from 2012 through 2017 the Governor of the Venezuelan State of Tachira who oversaw Cobiserta (described as a company that was owned and controlled by the Venezuelan State of Tachira that, among other things, purchased food for the people of Tachira);
- Venezuelan Government Official 1 (described as an individual who during the relevant time period was a high-ranking official at Fonden (a state-owned and state-controlled government entity in Venezuela that invested government funds in the best interests of the people of Venezuela), a high-ranking official for the Venezuelan Ministry of Finance, and a high ranking official at Bandes (described as a state-owned and state-controlled government entity in Venezuela that was designed to promote economic development and sustained growth in Venezuela); and
- Venezuelan Government Official 2 (described as an individual who during the relevant time period was an official in the Venezuelan Ministry of Finance, a high-ranking official of Bandes and a high-ranking official of Corpovex (described as a state-owned and state-controlled entity in Venezuela that managed all import and export activities of Venezuela)
in exchange for their assistance in obtaining contracts to provide food to the people of Venezuela through Cobisereta (described as a company that was owned and controlled by the Venezuelan State of Tachira and that, among other things, purchase food for the people of Tachira) and Corpovex.
According to the information, Contreras Saab served “as an intermediary to receive bribe money on behalf of Vielma-Mora, Contreras forwarded, paid, transferred, and directed those bribes as instructed by Vielma-Mora, and Contreras Saab also received payments for his part in the illegal bribery scheme.”
According to the information, Contreras Saab and his co-conspirators caused bribes to be made to bank accounts in foreign countries and the U.S. and through the U.S.
The information invokes the dd-3 prong of the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions and alleges, among other things, that “while in the U.S.” Contreras Saab sent an e-mail to a financial institution in Panama in connection with a wire transfer and authorized a credit card transaction using his credit card in order to pay approximately $4,499 to a travel website for a close relative of Vielma-Mora, at the direction and for the benefit of Vielma-Mora, all in furtherance of and to promote the bribery scheme.”
The filing of an information – as opposed to an indictment – often suggests that a defendant is cooperating with the DOJ and plans to plead guilty.
