**** Derwick Associates, Halvorssen, ProEnergy, Rosineau, PDVSA, Corpoelec, Colombia, FARC, Aronson et al
1.
Halvorssen y
Derwick Associates
Hemos recibido
una nota de Thor Halvorssen Mendoza sobre el dictamen del tribunal de Florida
en el cual se establece que su demanda por difamación en contra de Derwick Associates
no puede ser considerada por no tener jurisdicción. Esta es su declaración:
“Con los más
de mil millones de dólares que le robaron al Estado venezolano, los accionistas
de Derwick Associates, junto a su ejército de abogados penalistas, estrategas
de medios, piratas informáticos y especialistas en relaciones públicas, han
librado una campaña implacable contra cualquier informante, periodista,
bloguero o defensor de derechos humanos que se haya atrevido a desafiar la
asociación delincuencial en curso entre los venezolanos Francisco D'Agostino
Casado, Pedro Trebbau López, Alejandro Betancourt López, Francisco Convit
Guruceaga, Edgard Romero Lazo y Eduardo Travieso.
Tenemos la
esperanza de que en los tribunales de justicia podremos demostrar que el
alegato de Derwick de ser una “empresa honesta” es una fantasía y que, en
realidad, lo que hicieron estos individuos fue robarle a Venezuela más de mil
millones de dólares; que pagaron comisiones ilegales y sobornos a funcionarios
del gobierno venezolano, incluyendo al teniente Diosdado Cabello; y que lavaron
cientos de millones de dólares a través de instituciones financieras de Estados
Unidos y Europa. Y que, tratando de encubrir su corrupción, se dedicaron a difamar
y a arruinar las carreras y la reputación de muchas personas. Y yo, uno de los
objetos de su campaña sucia.
Lamentablemente,
el tribunal dictaminó ayer [Julio 16, 2015] que, dentro de mi caso civil por
difamación, esa corte no tiene jurisdicción personal sobre Francisco D'Agostino
y las empresas Derwick ya que para la corte D’Agostino no vive en Florida. Debe
quedar claro, sin embargo, que el fallo del juez no significa de ninguna manera
que Derwick y D'Agostino no sean culpables de haber cometido varios delitos
financieros, además de haber difamado a muchas personas. El fallo versó
exclusivamente sobre asuntos de mero procedimiento acerca de la residencia del
acusado, con los cuales tanto mis abogados como yo discordamos. Por tanto,
apelaremos de esta decisión ante la Corte de Apelaciones del Tercer Distrito
del Estado de Florida. La verdad puede enfermar, pero no morir del todo.
Antecedentes
El periodista
y activista de derechos humanos Thor Halvorssen Mendoza presentó una demanda
ante la Corte de Circuito de Miami-Dade el 20 de noviembre de 2013 alegando que
los acusados Derwick Associates Corp., Derwick Associates USA, LLC, Alejandro
Betancourt-López, Pedro Trebbau-López y Francisco D ' Agostino-Casado lo
difamaron a través de cartas que ellos enviaron a Forbes y al Huffington Post
alegando que Halvorssen había sido pagado para realizar preguntas infundadas
respecto a los acusados. Las cartas enviadas por Derwick aseguraban que todas
las afirmaciones que habían sido hechas por periodistas y otros investigadores
acerca de sobrefacturación y de actividad criminal de los acusados, eran
simplemente "mentiras repetidas" por Halvorssen.
El proceso
civil iniciado por Halvorssen alegaba que los acusados habían de hecho
participado en sobrefacturación y que habían pagado sobornos a funcionarios
venezolanos para adjudicarse contratos de construcción de plantas eléctricas, y
que estos sobornos incluían un pago de $50 millones de dólares americanos para
el Presidente de la Asamblea Nacional, Diosdado Cabello.
El Juez
Thomas Rebull desestimó parcialmente la reclamación de Halvorssen ayer en
cuanto concierne a Derwick Associates Corp., Derwick Associates EE.UU., LLC, y
Francisco D'Agostino-Casado. Por su parte, Alejandro Betancourt López hasta la
fecha continúa evadiendo ser notificado con la demanda. El caso sigue abierto
en cuanto a Pedro Trebbau-López.
El Juez
Rebull no se pronunció sobre el fondo de la demanda de Halvorssen que versa
sobre la sobrefacturación y actividad criminal de los demandados. El Juez
Rebull desestimó parcialmente el caso por una razón meramente procedimental
relacionada con la jurisdicción de la corte, encontrando que no había un punto
de contacto suficientemente fuerte entre el Estado de la Florida y las
actividades de los acusados; algo que en el léxico jurídico significa falta de
“jurisdicción personal.”
2.
Derwick Associates y ProEnergy
En
paralelo, Derwick Associates ha seguido mencionada en los Estados Unidos,
debido a las revelaciones de un ex-empleado de la empresa Pro Energy Services,
con la cual Derwick Associates mantiene estrecha relación. En efecto, ver: ttp://cryptome.org/2015/06/vz-corrupt-files.htm , y https://settysoutham.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/proenergy-document-leaker-storms-out-of-closet/
, el Sr. Dan Rosenau, quien fuese empleado de pro Energy decidió hablar sobre
lo que él define como irregularidades de contratación con Venezuela por parte
de Pro Energy Services y Derwick Associates. Lo que dice el Sr. Rosenau es
transcrito de seguidas (Pido disculpas por no traducir las declaraciones del Sr.
Rosenau):
“Assorted Derwick Files - Re VZ-US Corruption June 11
Dan Rosenau , dan.rosenau87@gmail.com writes:
Re: Venezuela/U.S. energy sector
scandal involving J.P. Morgan, ProEnergy Services (partially-owned by Obama
appointee), Derwick Associates
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's FINCEN recently announced that Banco Privada d'Andorra was favored by criminal enterprises from Russia, China, and Venezuela. In the case of Venezuela, government officials reportedly deposited more than $4Bn into personal accounts—most of it siphoned off from PDVSA, the state-owned oil company of Venezuela.
I'm painfully aware of the embezzlement and overbilling involving Venezuela's energy sector given that, until recently, I was employed at Sedalia, Missouri-based ProEnergy Services. ProEnergy was the contractor responsible for the construction of one dozen power plants in deals involving gross overbilling, multiple offshore transactions, and a murky association with Derwick Associates, a Venezuelan start-up with zero experience in power plant construction. I'm making available here more than 10GB of material directly from the company hard drive. The metadata on each document can be traced directly to Pro-Energy's computers. My hope is that "crowdsourcing" the enclosed data will allow interested parties to assist in exposing a multi-billion dollar fraud.
From 2009-2012 ProEnergy billed to the tune of $2Bn almost all of it flowing from a single client: Derwick Associates. Our company sold more than $1Bn in turbines (most of them used or refurbished--but sold as new) to Derwick which then resold them hours later at a significant mark-up to the government of Venezuela through entities such as their electricity ministry, their Guyanese state enterprise CVG, their state-owned oil company PDVSA, and the SIDOR iron-ore producer. In addition to turbine sales to Derwick, ProEnergy built the power plants that Derwick marketed as their own and for which both companies overbilled the Venezuelan government in the hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the Wall Street Journal, Derwick is now under criminal investigation by federal authorities and by local authorities in New York. (This prompted Derwick to immediately hire Adam Kauffmann, former head of the Manhattan DA investigation division. Kauffmann is already representing several Venezuelan government officials who embezzled hundreds of millions).
Working in ProEnergy's sales department, I learned our company had hit pay dirt when a group of connected Venezuelans chose to ignore Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) such as Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, and General Electric and instead used ProEnergy as a middleman. In other words, a middleman used a middleman.
Inexplicably, the IT department at ProEnergy had blocked access to internet sites when I googled "Derwick" and "corruption." This stirred my curiosity and so I explored the company's shared computer drive for the term "Derwick." What I found there shocked me: dozens of proposals to Derwick for generators, for power plants, for upgrades to those power plants. It was odd given that ProEnergy has never built a power plant in the United States (ProEnergy fails to meet American standards and so has offices in places like Angola, Argentina, Pakistan, and Venezuela). Shockingly, ProEnergy's proposals reflected a mark-up ranging from 20-74%. In my industry, profit margin usually hovers between 2 and 5%. At these prices someone was being ripped off. ProEnergy was overbilling Derwick.
My sense of disbelief only grew the more I read. I discovered document drafts on Derwick letterhead. ProEnergy was writing the proposals and preparing the invoices that Derwick sent Venezuelan clients for the exact same equipment described in the proposals to Derwick fromProEnergy. This included actual invoices from Derwick to Venezuela's state-owned enterprises like PDVSA. These invoices, the Microsoft Word documents indicated, were created on ProEnergy computers in Sedalia. On some of the Derwick invoices, the bank wiring instructions went to bank accounts belonging to ProEnergy. Some to offshore bank Davos International and others to JP Morgan in New York.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury's FINCEN recently announced that Banco Privada d'Andorra was favored by criminal enterprises from Russia, China, and Venezuela. In the case of Venezuela, government officials reportedly deposited more than $4Bn into personal accounts—most of it siphoned off from PDVSA, the state-owned oil company of Venezuela.
I'm painfully aware of the embezzlement and overbilling involving Venezuela's energy sector given that, until recently, I was employed at Sedalia, Missouri-based ProEnergy Services. ProEnergy was the contractor responsible for the construction of one dozen power plants in deals involving gross overbilling, multiple offshore transactions, and a murky association with Derwick Associates, a Venezuelan start-up with zero experience in power plant construction. I'm making available here more than 10GB of material directly from the company hard drive. The metadata on each document can be traced directly to Pro-Energy's computers. My hope is that "crowdsourcing" the enclosed data will allow interested parties to assist in exposing a multi-billion dollar fraud.
From 2009-2012 ProEnergy billed to the tune of $2Bn almost all of it flowing from a single client: Derwick Associates. Our company sold more than $1Bn in turbines (most of them used or refurbished--but sold as new) to Derwick which then resold them hours later at a significant mark-up to the government of Venezuela through entities such as their electricity ministry, their Guyanese state enterprise CVG, their state-owned oil company PDVSA, and the SIDOR iron-ore producer. In addition to turbine sales to Derwick, ProEnergy built the power plants that Derwick marketed as their own and for which both companies overbilled the Venezuelan government in the hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the Wall Street Journal, Derwick is now under criminal investigation by federal authorities and by local authorities in New York. (This prompted Derwick to immediately hire Adam Kauffmann, former head of the Manhattan DA investigation division. Kauffmann is already representing several Venezuelan government officials who embezzled hundreds of millions).
Working in ProEnergy's sales department, I learned our company had hit pay dirt when a group of connected Venezuelans chose to ignore Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) such as Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney, and General Electric and instead used ProEnergy as a middleman. In other words, a middleman used a middleman.
Inexplicably, the IT department at ProEnergy had blocked access to internet sites when I googled "Derwick" and "corruption." This stirred my curiosity and so I explored the company's shared computer drive for the term "Derwick." What I found there shocked me: dozens of proposals to Derwick for generators, for power plants, for upgrades to those power plants. It was odd given that ProEnergy has never built a power plant in the United States (ProEnergy fails to meet American standards and so has offices in places like Angola, Argentina, Pakistan, and Venezuela). Shockingly, ProEnergy's proposals reflected a mark-up ranging from 20-74%. In my industry, profit margin usually hovers between 2 and 5%. At these prices someone was being ripped off. ProEnergy was overbilling Derwick.
My sense of disbelief only grew the more I read. I discovered document drafts on Derwick letterhead. ProEnergy was writing the proposals and preparing the invoices that Derwick sent Venezuelan clients for the exact same equipment described in the proposals to Derwick fromProEnergy. This included actual invoices from Derwick to Venezuela's state-owned enterprises like PDVSA. These invoices, the Microsoft Word documents indicated, were created on ProEnergy computers in Sedalia. On some of the Derwick invoices, the bank wiring instructions went to bank accounts belonging to ProEnergy. Some to offshore bank Davos International and others to JP Morgan in New York.
When I learned that the
owners of Derwick were barely out of college and friendly with the son
of the Electricity Minister of Venezuela I realized why ProEnergy had
prepared the Derwick invoices: because our 20-something Venezuelan clients
lacked the technical know-how. After all, how does a person draft an invoice
for a product with no knowledge about the item in question?
Remarkably, these invoices prepared by ProEnergy and purportedly from Derwick also revealed mammoth markups over and above the prices that ProEnergy charged Derwick. So, an item like a set of three FT8 Swift Pac turbines bought by ProEnergy from Pratt and Whitney for $67.5M were sold one day later for $78M to Derwick who then sold it two days after that to Venezuela for $97.5 million. And so in four days an item with a retail cost of $67.5M had $30M added by ProEnergy and by Derwick Associates. In another instance three Rolls Royce Trent 60 turbines originally sourced for $66M from Rolls Royce were sold to Derwick for $79.3M, which in turn resold them hours later for $97.5M, adding another $31M profit to the bottom line of both Derwick and ProEnergy. Like these transactions there are scores of instances on every item imaginable—from spare parts to construction costs, from turbines to generators, from transformers to transportation costs and employee training. I stopped counting the total on the invoices after two billion dollars.
One colleague told me that the FBI had visited ProEnergy on several occasions. I was tortured, week after week, knowing that ProEnergy was robbing a nation where poverty and crime are rampant. I spent sleepless nights agonizing about what to do. Company-wide layoffs solved my immediate dilemma. The truth is that with no more Venezuelan cash flow, ProEnergy suffered a long-standing cash crunch. So much so that Washington, D.C.'s Acon Investments, made a capital injection into ProEnergy. Acon is run by Obama appointee to Latin America Bernard Aronson.
Remarkably, these invoices prepared by ProEnergy and purportedly from Derwick also revealed mammoth markups over and above the prices that ProEnergy charged Derwick. So, an item like a set of three FT8 Swift Pac turbines bought by ProEnergy from Pratt and Whitney for $67.5M were sold one day later for $78M to Derwick who then sold it two days after that to Venezuela for $97.5 million. And so in four days an item with a retail cost of $67.5M had $30M added by ProEnergy and by Derwick Associates. In another instance three Rolls Royce Trent 60 turbines originally sourced for $66M from Rolls Royce were sold to Derwick for $79.3M, which in turn resold them hours later for $97.5M, adding another $31M profit to the bottom line of both Derwick and ProEnergy. Like these transactions there are scores of instances on every item imaginable—from spare parts to construction costs, from turbines to generators, from transformers to transportation costs and employee training. I stopped counting the total on the invoices after two billion dollars.
One colleague told me that the FBI had visited ProEnergy on several occasions. I was tortured, week after week, knowing that ProEnergy was robbing a nation where poverty and crime are rampant. I spent sleepless nights agonizing about what to do. Company-wide layoffs solved my immediate dilemma. The truth is that with no more Venezuelan cash flow, ProEnergy suffered a long-standing cash crunch. So much so that Washington, D.C.'s Acon Investments, made a capital injection into ProEnergy. Acon is run by Obama appointee to Latin America Bernard Aronson.
Months went by and I could
not shake the disgust of what transpired. I blew the whistle by sharing
the information with celebrated
Venezuelan investigative reporter Cesar Batiz who verified the
material and allowed a blogger to post some of it on Scribd.
The sensational
revelations about money-laundering activities of Venezuelan energy officials at
the Andorran bank would explain why Venezuelan state officials agreed to
overpay Derwick and ProEnergy. The men addressed in the letters
(written by ProEnergy and) and sent by Derwick are accountholders exposed
to criminal charges in Spain for amassing illegal fortunes in "consulting
fees."
It is disheartening that American energy executives would display such appalling greed and be so quick to partake in the looting of Venezuela. My hope is that by going public with the 10GB of information more of my former colleagues will come forward and blow the whistle on one of the most troubling international scandals in Venezuelan (and Missouri) history. I've learned that Derwick Associates has persecuted numerous bloggers in Venezuela and abroad as well as mainstream journalists including having stories about their misdeeds "spiked" at the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Economist, Huffington Post, and the Miami Herald.
Dan Rosenau
It is disheartening that American energy executives would display such appalling greed and be so quick to partake in the looting of Venezuela. My hope is that by going public with the 10GB of information more of my former colleagues will come forward and blow the whistle on one of the most troubling international scandals in Venezuelan (and Missouri) history. I've learned that Derwick Associates has persecuted numerous bloggers in Venezuela and abroad as well as mainstream journalists including having stories about their misdeeds "spiked" at the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Economist, Huffington Post, and the Miami Herald.
Dan Rosenau
Que es
lo que alega el Sr. Rosenau?
En esencia, el Sr. Rosenau alega que ProEnergy Services
vendió a Derwick Associates turbinas por
más de Mil Millones de dólares, equipos que horas después fueron vendidas a
empresas del estado venezolano con sobre precios de centenares de millones de
dólares. El Sr. Rosenau habla de sobre precios que varían entre el 20% y el 74%
para equipos vendidos a Venezuela bajo esta modalidad. Estas acusaciones son
gravísimas y, por lo que se puede saber, no han sido nunca investigadas por la Contraloría
general de Venezuela, por la Asamblea Nacional o por cualquiera otra institución
o agencia gubernamental venezolana.
3. ProEnergy,
Derwick Associates, Colombia y Bernard Aronson
Al final de la declaración del Sr. Rosenau
hay una referencia pasajera al Sr. Bernard Aronson. El Sr. Aronson es el presidente de ACON, una
empresa de financiamiento basada en Washington DC, la cual le ha inyectado
capital a Pro Energy Services en el pasado reciente, según dice el Sr. Rosineau.
En Febrero de este año el Sr. Aronson fue nombrado Enviado Especial del
Presidente Obama (sin remuneración) para asistir en las negociaciones de paz entre el gobierno de
Colombia y las FARC. Esta designación pudiera haber colocado al Sr.
Aronson en una situación de conflicto de interés. Como presidente y accionista
de ACON el sr. Aronson es accionista de la empresa petrolera VETRA, la cual
opera en Colombia y ha sido objeto de recientes ataques por parte de las FARC,
ver: http://www.portalinformativohidrocarburos.com/hidrocarburos/vetra-suspenderia-operaciones-en-putumayo-por-atentados-y-bloqueos-de-las-farc/.
Al mismo tiempo la empresa ACON ha
inyectado dinero a ProEnergy, empresa asociada a Derwick Associate, la cual ha
comprado acciones de la importante empresa petrolera Pacific Rubiales, que
también opera en Colombia y está sujeta a ataques de las FARC. No creo exagerar
al decir que estas relaciones directas e indirectas del
Sr. Aronson con empresas que operan en un sector industrial hostigado por las
FARC y su simultánea condición de integrante del equipo de las negociaciones
del gobierno Colombiano con las FARC,
parecerían limitar su independencia para aconsejar al gobierno Colombiano en
sus negociaciones con la organización guerrillera. Digo esto porque Aronson se
reúne por separado con las dos partes y hace sugerencias, ayudando a “aceitar
los resortes” que pueden llevar a una solución.
Sin prejuzgar si las diversas relaciones
arriba mencionadas son o no irregulares, creo que hay mucho campo para que ellas
sean debidamente investigadas por los tres países en las cuales se llevan a
cabo.
3 comentarios:
Conozco a Thor. Excelente sujeto. Si Venezuela fuese un país normal, Thor sería el canciller de un gobierno presidido por Leopoldo López. Pero tenemos a la car'e pereza de canciller y a Maburro de presidente. Esta vaina es karmática.
Thor es un venezolano de excepción. Lo vi en acción en el Foro de la libertad que él organiza en Oslo todos los años y quedé admirado de su talento. Es vehemente, apasionado, creativo, muy eficiente y se mueve con soltura en todos los ambientes, además de estar muy bien conectado en Europa, en USA y en Venezuela
Leopoldo López será presidente de Venezuela, no me queda duda. Quizás no lo veré, dada mi edad avanzada. Creo que Maria Corina Machado también será presidente. Antonio Ledezma probablemente no aunque tiene talento y méritos para serlo pero el "timing" no es el mejor para él. Pero sería un tremendo Ministro de Relaciones Interiores en un gabinete democrático.
Thor no tiene, que yo sepa, ambiciones políticas. Y, como primo hermano de Leopoldo, no creo que sería bueno tenerlo de Canciller, si Leopoldo es presidente.
La Venezuela del futuro tendrá gente así en posiciones de poder.
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