According to Venezuela’s attorney general office, government officials were running parallel oil operations with the assistance of the national crypto department.
Venezuela’s energy supplier has close down crypto mining facilities throughout the country as part of a reorganization of the national crypto department and ongoing corruption investigations involving the country’s oil company.
According to local media reports, crypto mining companies, and tweets from Venezuela’s National Association of Cryptocurrencies, mining facilities were closed down in the past days in the states of Lara, Carabobo, and Bolívar. It's unclear how numerous crypto firms were affected. Some crypto exchanges were also ordered to cease operations.
The closure of crypto mining facilities is believed to be part of an ongoing investigation of corruption involving Venezuela’s oil company PDVSA and the country’s crypto department.
Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, disclosed on March 25 that government officials were allegedly running parallel oil operations with the assistance of the national crypto department. Saab commented on Twitter:
“This network used a conglomerate of commercial companies to legitimize the capital obtained from sales through the acquisition of crypto-assets, personal and real estate.“
According to Saab, at least 10 people have been arrested in connection with the investigations, including Joselit Ramirez Camacho, who led the crypto department since its inception in 2018, overseeing crypto tax rules and the country’s cryptocurrency PetroDollar (XPD). According to earlier reports, Camacho was arrested on March 17 as part of the investigation.
Since June 2020, Camacho has been listed in the United States Most Wanted List. At the time, the Department of Homeland Security Investigators issued a bounty of up to $5 million for any information that would lead to the capture of Petro’s supervisor. Authorities alleged that Camacho had “ deep political, social and economic ties ” to suspected narcotic kingpins, involving Tareck El Aissami, the former vice president of Venezuela.
Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro announced the reorganization of the National Superintendency of Crypto Assets in a decree issued on March 17. Maduro’s administration claimed the decision was intended to protect the country’s citizens from the negative effects of economic sanctions, among other reasons.
(ANA PAULA PEREIRA, Cointelegraph, 2023)