US-based oil refinery company CITGO appears to have been involved in a recently exposed corruption and fraud scheme orchestrated by the leadership of Spain’s Socialist Party.
Spanish government investigators recently released phone call audio and recorded conversations demonstrating Socialist party officials conspired with private businessmen to obtain large sums of cash in exchange for political favors.
One such conversation features Socialist party official and businessman Koldo García promising former Socialist Congressman José Luis Ábalos a whopping 500k a month from CITGO.
Congressman Abalos would receive the reward as a token of gratitude from CITGO’s leadership for the former’s role in advocating for Spain’s official recognition of Venezuela’s democratic interim government.
CITGO is a US-based oil refiner, transporter, and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, and other industrial products.
PDVSA, a state-owned oil company of the Venezuelan government, is CITGO’s parent company.
However, in 2019, President Trump transferred control of PDVSA’s ownership of CITGO from Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s government to the Venezuelan Democratic opposition.
“You will receive for a time 500,000 bucks per month,” Koldo told Abalos allegedly on behalf of Venezuela’s democratic interim government and financed through CITGO.
The corruption reports have eroded CITGO’s credibility while the oil refiner is embroiled in debt-collection disputes as it struggles to survive and remain independent from PDVSA.
Last month, US lawmakers urged the White House to halt proceedings against CITGO from creditors seeking to recover debts owed by PDVSA.
Since CITGO is technically a subsidiary of PDVSA and the latter remains unreachable given Dictator Maduro’s refusal to cooperate with US law, PDVSA creditors have turned to CITGO as responsible for supplying overdue debts on PDVSA’s behalf.
Based in the US, CITGO would be forced to comply with any legal orders mandating it to pay out PDVSA’s debts.
Critics of CITGO’s sale, like Representative Maria-Elvira Salazar, worry that Venezuela’s Democratic opposition will lose leverage against Dictator Maduro’s government if they lose authority over CITGO.
Salazar sent a letter to Treasury and State Secretaries Scott Bessent and Marco Rubio urging them to halt the sale of CITGO’s shares.
Arguing that the debts generated by Venezuela were caused by the corrupt Venezuelan government’s mismanagement of PDVSA and not the Democratic opposition’s stewardship of CITGO, Salazar asked the US government to halt the sale.
“The debts of Venezuela should be paid by Maduro and the rest of the mafia, not the Venezuelan opposition,” said Salazar. “They are the ones who ruined the country and ripped off their creditors.”
