Versión Español
Spanish – The Nicolás Maduro regime provided China with some ways to steal technology from large American and European multinationals. The victims of this plagiarism include Siemens AG, Superior Derrick Services LLC, and Solar Turbines Inc.
A report by OKDIARIO revealed that the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA helped the Asian country to take over data and technology from others through internal tenders to contract services. Chavista frontmen facilitated this modus operandi.
“PDVSA announces a tender for the purchase of machinery or technological equipment and invites a dozen large multinationals from the U.S. and Europe to participate. The candidates also include three shell companies, without employees or own manufacturing capacity, controlled by a businessman allied with the Chavista regime: on some occasions, Roberto Rincón,” the report states.
According to OKDIARIO, the scheme has been implemented since 2009 and “has served to rig dozens of public tenders for a total amount of more than 1.5 billion euros.”
PDVSA executives, acting as accomplices of the regime’s frontmen such as Álex Saab, Raúl Gorrín, or Roberto Rincón, stole everything from technical reports to execution programs from foreign companies that were bidding for contracts.
The modus operandi
“PDVSA’s central purchasing office, Bariven, extends the period for the presentation of offers. In this additional period, the shell company allied with the Chavista regime can find the content of the remaining offers and present its own, based on the one prepared by one of the large multinationals,” the report states.
After selecting the Chavista companies in PDVSA, a surcharge of up to 60% is awarded, which both frontmen and officials receive their bribes and their respective commissions for the millionaire bribes.
Chinese plagiarism
OKDIARIO explains that after awarding the tender to “shell” companies, without experience or employees, the plagiarized projects are handed over to Chinese subcontractors, in turn, delivered by multinationals to PDVSA’s management.
“The presence of these multinationals serves to give an appearance of legality and high competitiveness to the bidding. In fact, they are invited to have their designs and tenders stolen, and to legitimize the award of the tender to the allied company that will destine a part of the amount of the contract to the payment of bribes,” reveals the report.
The China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), for example, was one of the companies that benefited from subcontracting using designs made by one of the North American multinationals that had entered the bidding process.
The project “thieves”
One of the main “thieves” here would be Roberto Rincón, a businessman accused by a court in Houston, Texas, of leading a corruption plot that plundered PDVSA and caused more than one billion USD in damages to the country’s coffers.
Another alleged accomplice of the plagiarism to multinationals is the then president of the Bariven central purchasing office, Silvestre Molero, who, according to OKDIARIO, signed the hiring records of the fictitious companies.
Currently, the corruption network is being investigated in countries such as the United States and Spain. The Spanish justice system has all the published documents that would certify the veracity of this report.
