Venezuelan ex-official pleads guilty in US money laundering case

A former official in Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez´s government has pleaded guilty in a billion-dollar money laundering case, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Alejandro Andrade Cedeno, who was president of the Venezuelan National Treasury Office (ONT) between 2007 and 2010 and also headed the National Economic Development Bank of Venezuela, pleaded guilty in federal court in Florida to conspiracy to launder money.

The 54-year-old Venezuelan citizen residing in Wellington, Florida, admitted his guilt on December 22, 2017 and his sentencing is scheduled for November 27, the Justice Department said.

Also Tuesday, the Justice Department revealed that another Venezuelan citizen, Gabriel Jimenez Aray, the 50-year-old former owner of the dissolved Banco Peravia of the Dominican Republic, pleaded guilty of conspiracy to launder money on March 20.

Andrade and Jimenez´s guilty pleas are part of a corruption scheme that also includes the Venezuelan billionaire owner of the private Globovision television station, Raul Gorrin Belisario, according to the department.

Gorrin, 50, lives in Miami and was charged on August 16, 2017 in the Southern District of Florida with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), as well as with money laundering.

According to the indictment, Gorrin paid millions of dollars in bribes to two high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including Andrade, to secure the right to conduct foreign exchange transactions at rates favorable to the Venezuelan government.

The Justice Department did not identify the other official who allegedly received bribes from Gorrin.

US authorities did say that to conceal illicit payments, Gorrin made deposits through several front companies.

Investigators said the Globovision mogul teamed up with Jimenez to acquire Banco Peravia to launder bribes paid to Venezuelan officials.

The United States has very tense ties with Venezuela, where Chavez´s successor Nicolas Maduro presides over an imploding state-led economy. Shortages of food and medicine combined with violent crime have fed mass emigration.

Crisis-torn Venezuela´s socialist government has cracked down heavily on perceived breaches of strict currency exchange regulations, in place since 2003.

Maduro says his country is the victim of an "economic war" waged by opposition and the United States.