Russians are accused of smuggling Venezualean oil

Two russian businessmen were arrested in Europe for smuggling Venezuelan oil on a “shadow fleet”.

Russians Yuri Orekhov and Artyom Uss created a scheme to illegally export oil from the sanctioned Venezuelan state company PDVSA. The men used the code word “Disneyland” to refer to Venezuela in their messages, described in the US indictment. The complex network involved subterfuge, money laundering and the disabling of maritime tracking systems to disguise the source and sell the cargo. To avoid sanctions, Russians used cryptocurrency and bank services in the UAE, writes Trade Winds.

Using a German trading company as a front, the criminals transported hundreds of millions of barrels on undocumented tankers. They tried to disguise the cargo by labeling it as green beans and rice. Oil was supplied to the company of a russian oligarch. Although the prosecutor’s office does not name the oligarch and the company, the dates in the documents coincide with sanctions against companies owned by Oleg Deripaska, the US attorney’s office said.

Details of the criminal conspiracy were revealed this week after Orekhov was arrested in Germany and Uss in Italy. The US is seeking their extradition to face trial in the US. Orekhov and his co-conspirators are also accused of supplying Russian buyers with military technology purchased in the United States, primarily missile systems, radars, and satellites, some of which end up on the battlefield in Ukraine.