Geneva regional prosecutors have made two arrests after opening a criminal investigation of a Swiss consulting firm that served as a conduit between Venezuela’s state oil company and some of its biggest clients.
A person familiar with the case says the Helsinge Inc. executives were arrested in recent days following allegations contained in a complaint linked to PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
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The Geneva public prosecutor’s office confirmed the probe against unspecified Helsinge executives on suspicion of corruption of foreign officials and money-laundering, but declined to comment further.
Helsinge was set up 14 years ago in Panama with offices in Miami, Geneva and the English Channel island of Jersey, and later became the conduit by which some of PDVSA’s biggest clients and supplier allegedly obtained insider information on its tenders for oil exports and purchases of light crude.
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Joshua Goodman contributed from Bogota, Colombia.
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