A Miami businessman accused of servicing Venezuela’s fleet of Russian fighter jets in violation of U.S. sanctions was denied bail as a federal judge determined he was a flight risk due to extensive ties with the South American country’s military.
By AP – Joshua Goodman
Aug 18, 2021
Jorge Nobrega admitted to having been on several Venezuelan air bases, flown in military aircraft and having friends inside the military upon his recent arrest, a federal prosecutor said in an arraignment hearing Wednesday.
The case against the previously unknown Nobrega, which prosecutors said is likely to include money laundering charges, stands out from a bevy of other ongoing criminal investigations focused on corruption in Venezuela because it’s one of the first to look into the dealings of Venezuela’s military, a key plank of support for President Nicolás Maduro.
It also is likely to shed a light on how Maduro’s socialist government began relying on Thailand’s publicly-traded Tipco Asphalt, a longtime buyer of the country’s crude oil, to make payments around the world once U.S. sanctions imposed in 2019 cut off its access to western banks.
Nobrega after his arrest Sunday at Miami’s international airport spoke for more than two hours to investigators from the Department of Homeland Security and acknowledged receiving two payments in March 2020 from Tipco, prosecutor Kurt Lunkenheimer said in court.
More than 2.4 million euros ($2.8 million) allegedly was transferred between March and July 2019 from Tipco to a bank account in Portugal in the name of Nobrega’s company, Achabal Technologies, according to federal investigators. Of that amount, the bulk was transferred to Nobrega’s U.S. accounts. But about 1 million euros in the Portuguese bank remains unaccounted.
“He may have the means to live nicely outside the United States if he were to flee,” Lunkenheimer argued.
Judge Jacqueline Becerra agreed and said that his ties to Venezuela’s government and the fact that he had a common law wife and two younger children living in Venezuela were also a factor in her decision to reject a request for bail that included offering up as collateral two Miami apartments as well as an Orlando home he still owns with his ex-wife.
The criminal complaint and affidavit against Nobrega allege that his Miami company sold to Venezuela’s military a suppressant foam to insulate fuel tanks on its Sukhoi combat aircraft from exploding under enemy gunfire.
In a recorded meeting with an unidentified informant, Nobrega allegedly bragged about meeting with Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López and likened the technique to a form of “dialysis” that would save Venezuela the expense of sending the fleet in Russia for servicing.
He was allegedly paid for his work by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA via Tipco.
An Associated Press investigation last year revealed how Venezuela had been relying on Tipco to blunt the impact of U.S. sanctions. In exchange for deep discounts on crude shipments, Tipco would pay PDVSA’s obligations and deduct the amounts from what it owed the Venezuelan oil giant, according to records obtained by AP.
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Read More: AP – Miami man who serviced Russian jets in Venezuela denied bail
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