The Public Ministry issued arrest warrants against the members of a corruption network in the company Gas Comunal, a PDVSA subsidiary, which was engaged in collecting illegal commissions in dollars for the filling of gas cylinders to the distribution companies of this fuel.
This was reported by the Attorney General of the Republic, Tareck William Saab, who specified that the arrest warrants were issued against Jacob Gray, president of Gas Comunal PDVSA Yohandry Jose Guevara Alvarez, manager of the Charallave gas filling plant Oriana Alejandra Betancourt Corales, manager of the Apacuana gas filling plant, and Eder Alexis Duarte, manager of the El Tambor gas filling plant. It indicated that the president of the PDVSA subsidiary, Jacob Gray, is still a fugitive from justice, and the others have already been detained in Caracas by officials of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM).
These officials demanded payment in commission dollars for filling each cylinder, in addition to the cost in bolivars that was paid to the company’s account, he explained. The plot was unveiled after the arrest of Adán Contreras, owner of the Maracay Gas 2020 warehouse, where he sold gas bottles in dollars. This citizen did not have the corresponding permission to store, distribute and commercialize domestic gas, Saab explained.
He indicated that Contreras was deprived of liberty for the crime of speculation, and detailed the corruption scheme directed from the highest authority of the Gas Comunal company, a PDVSA subsidiary. Only Contreras, the citizen who filed for denunciation, “filled more than 12 thousand gas cylinders in a few weeks, which is equivalent to more than 24 thousand dollars in commissions collected illegally, he said.
FORMER LABOR INSPECTORS ARRESTED FOR ILLEGAL NEGOTIATIONS
The prosecutor also referred to the arrest of two former chief labor inspectors in the states of Nueva Esparta and Sucre for being involved in illegal negotiations to favor companies in processes related to the working class. The detainees are Pedro Luis Aliendres Vásquez, former chief inspector of the Nueva Esparta Labor Inspectorate; and Elías Antonio Martínez Fonseca, who was the chief inspector of the Sucre State Labor Inspectorate. Both were charged with the crimes of aggravated corruption and conspiracy.
Saab explained that both officials, who were denounced by the Legal Consultant of the Ministry of People’s Power for the Social Labor Process, carried out illegal negotiations to favor companies in the processes they had in the labor inspectorates. In the investigation, he said, conversations were captured in which for-profit negotiations were carried out with representatives of companies involved in administrative procedures, to declare their admissions and prevent the workers from being reinstated.
