US-Venezuela Citizen Pleads Guilty to FCPA Violations With PdVSA
A dual U.S.-Venezuela citizen pleaded guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act after the Department of Justice said he bribed officials of Petroleos de Venezuela, Venezuela’s state-run oil company. Jose Manuel Gonzalez Testino, who controlled multiple U.S.-based companies, was charged with one count each of conspiracy to violate the FCPA, violating the FCPA and failing to report foreign bank accounts, the DOJ said in a May 29 press release.
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Between 2012 and 2018, Gonzalez worked with “co-conspirators” to bribe PdVSA officials, including a 2013 payment of $629,000 to Cesar Rincon David Godoy, the former general manager of Bariven, PdVSA’s “procurement subsidiary,” the press release said. Gonzalez also bribed former PdVSA official Alfonso Eliezer Gravina Munoz and several officials employed by Citgo Petroleum Corporation, PdVSA’s Houston-based subsidiary. Gonzalez also did not disclose his financial interest or “signatory authority” over several foreign bank accounts, failing to file a foreign bank account report, DOJ said.
In exchange for the bribes, Rincon and Gravina gave Gonzalez “inside information concerning PDVSA procurement processes” and directed PdVSA contracts to Gonzalez’s companies. In exchange for bribes that included “gifts and other things of value,” Citgo officials helped Gonzalez’s companies earn contracts, “provided inside information concerning the PDVSA bidding process, helped conceal the fact that Gonzalez controlled multiple companies on certain bidding panels for PDVSA projects and assisted Gonzalez in receiving payment priority for outstanding PDVSA invoices,” the press release said.
Gonzalez’s guilty plea is part of a larger ongoing DOJ investigation into PdVSA bribery that includes charges against 21 people, the press release said. Sixteen of those people have pleaded guilty, the department said, with charges against the remaining five still outstanding.