[News] Juan Guaidó Used Millions of Looted Dollars to Asset Strip Venezuela

[Anti-Imperialist News]

orinocotribune.com
<https://orinocotribune.com/revealed-juan-guaido-used-millions-of-looted-dollars-to-asset-strip-venezuela/>
Revealed:
Juan Guaidó Used Millions of Looted Dollars to Asset Strip VenezuelaBy John
McEvoy – Aug 20, 2021

On 3 August, *The Canary* exposed
<https://www.thecanary.co/investigations/2021/08/03/exclusive-juan-guaido-paid-uk-legal-fees-with-looted-venezuelan-money/>
how
Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaidó’s UK legal costs were paid with
money appropriated from the Venezuelan state.

In an effort to access roughly US$2bn of Venezuelan gold held in the Bank
of England, it was reported
<https://www.thecanary.co/investigations/2021/08/03/exclusive-juan-guaido-paid-uk-legal-fees-with-looted-venezuelan-money/>
that
Guaidó’s legal team drew on hundreds of thousands of dollars originally
seized from the Central Bank of Venezuela in the US.

We can now reveal that this figure is significantly higher. According to
official documents, Guaidó and his appointees
<https://www.4pumpcourt.com/judgment/the-maduro-board-of-the-central-bank-of-venezuela-v-the-guaido-board-of-the-central-bank-of-venezuela/>
have
given over US$6.5m to powerhouse legal firms as part of a campaign to bleed
the Venezuelan state of its foreign assets.

Almost all of this money was sent in a series of instalments to Arnold &
Porter Kaye Scholer LLP – the legal firm representing
<https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/news/2020/07/venezuela-in-dispute-over-access-to-reserves>
Guaidó
in the UK.

Remarkably, the documents also suggest that Guaidó has been paid over half
a million dollars from this fund.

*Looted dollars*
In April 2020, the US government transferred
<https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14850> US$342m of Central Bank of
Venezuela assets to an account at the US Federal Reserve in New York. In a
move denounced by the Venezuelan government as “vulgar plundering”, the
money was then handed
<https://www.thecanary.co/investigations/2021/08/03/exclusive-juan-guaido-paid-uk-legal-fees-with-looted-venezuelan-money/>
over
to Guaidó’s ad-hoc administrative board of the Central Bank of Venezuela.

Official figures released by Guaidó’s ad-hoc board show
<https://www.bcvadhoc.com/uso-de-los-fondos> that at least US$6,552,512 of
these funds have been used “for professional services of lawyers in the
care of Assets abroad to be protected and licensing procedures before OFAC”.

Guaidó and his appointees have, in other words, spent millions of looted
dollars in an attempt to asset strip the Venezuelan state.

Most of this money was paid to Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP – the legal
firm representing Guaidó in the UK.

RELATED CONTENT: Funds Have Not Been Released: ‘Bank of England Has Frozen
Venezuelan Money for Vaccines’ (Venezuelan Gold)
<https://orinocotribune.com/funds-have-not-been-released-bank-of-england-has-frozen-venezuelan-money-for-vaccines-venezuelan-gold/>

Guaidó and his appointees have also directed
<https://www.bcvadhoc.com/uso-de-los-fondos> roughly US$100m of looted
assets towards a secretive
<https://apnews.com/article/latin-america-virus-outbreak-caribbean-ap-top-news-venezuela-bd68454e33c7cf5a57fe7bdfa32fe5a7>“Liberation
Fund”. According to *AP*, opposition lawmakers used
<https://apnews.com/article/latin-america-virus-outbreak-caribbean-ap-top-news-venezuela-bd68454e33c7cf5a57fe7bdfa32fe5a7>
the
fund during 2020 to “pay themselves $5,000 a month” while providing only
$100 a month to doctors and nurses battling the coronavirus (Covid-19)
pandemic.

Remarkably, the documents suggest that Guaidó and his appointees have in
fact paid Guaidó over half a million dollars since March 2021. The most
recent instalment to the ‘Presidency’ was delivered on 19 July 2021, and
totalled US$407,702.

*Lobbying for Guaidó*
A number of questions also arise regarding Guaidó’s legal representation in
the UK and its connections to the US foreign policy apparatus.

Eli Whitney Debevoise II, a senior partner at Arnold & Porter who leads
<https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/news/2021/07/arnold-porter-advises-central-bank-of-venezuela>
on
Guaidó’s UK case, has been listed on the US Foreign Agents Registration Act
as a lobbyist
<https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/02/venezuela-opposition-leader-juan-guaido-recruits-dc-lobbyists>
for
the Venezuelan opposition.

According to an official document
<https://efile.fara.gov/docs/1750-Short-Form-20190923-54.pdf>, Debevoise
has advised Guaidó “concerning U.S. economic sanctions, corporate banking
law, U.S. litigation, and international arbitration”.

RELATED CONTENT: Venezuelan Gold Seized by the Bank of England: British
Court Accepts Guaidó’s Appeal
<https://orinocotribune.com/venezuelan-gold-seized-by-the-bank-of-england-british-court-accepts-guaidos-appeal/>

The document continues
<https://efile.fara.gov/docs/1750-Short-Form-20190923-54.pdf>:

In support of the primary registrant [Guaidó], the short-form registrant
may engage in political activities on behalf of the foreign principal,
including making contact with U.S. government officials concerning the
preservation of Venezuela’s assets in the United States, the establishment
of a diplomatic presence, and economic and humanitarian assistance.

Guaidó may have paid for Arnold & Porter’s legal services, in other words,
with money seized in the US as a result of Arnold & Porter’s lobbying
efforts.


*Proximity to the US foreign policy apparatus *Debevoise II seems
well-positioned to provide lobbying services in the US.

According to his LinkedIn account
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitney-debevoise-51361914>, he’s a member of
the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which provides
<https://www.cfr.org/membership/individual-membership> “in-person access to
world leaders, senior government officials, members of Congress, and
prominent thinkers and practitioners”. Elliot Abrams
<https://www.thecanary.co/topics/elliott-abrams/>, Donald Trump’s former
point-man
<https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2019/03/07/us-envoy-to-venezuela-reveals-how-washington-uses-military-threat-to-keep-them-nervous/>
on
Venezuela, is a long-time senior fellow and member
<https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2019/02/04/establishment-expert-admits-us-sanctions-on-venezuela-are-designed-to-make-the-economy-scream/>
 of CFR <https://www.cfr.org/expert/elliott-abrams>.

Debevoise II also lists the late US official William D. Rogers, who planned
<https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/us/30rogers.html> US policy in Latin
America throughout the 1960s and 1970s, as a mentor
<https://www.chambers-associate.com/the-big-interview/eli-whitney-debevoise-ii-ex-world-bank-exec>.
Rogers was a top adviser
<http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2007/09/28/william_d_rogers_at_80_a_specialist_on_latin_america_and_aide_to_kissinger/>
to
Henry Kissinger throughout the mid-1970s; the latter described
<https://www.henryakissinger.com/remembrances/eulogy-for-william-d-rogers/>
Rogers
as “my friend and, in many ways, my conscience”.

Newspaper reports from the 1960s note
<http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/C%20Disk/CIA%20Foundations/Item%20033.pdf>
that
Debevoise II’s father Eli Whitney Debevoise was the principal officer at
CIA front organisation the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). As
the *Washington Post*reported in 1967, the ICJ received “$655,000 from
known CIA front groups”. Among Arnold & Porter’s alumni
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/honduras-lobby-us-prosecutors/2021/04/01/5aaac942-9274-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html>
is
former CIA general counsel Jeffrey H. Smith.

Arnold & Porter reportedly launched
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/honduras-lobby-us-prosecutors/2021/04/01/5aaac942-9274-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html>
an
“influence campaign” in support
<https://www.dw.com/es/honduras-contrat%C3%B3-influyente-bufete-de-washington-para-juicio-de-tony-hern%C3%A1ndez/a-57083998>
of
disgraced drug trafficker Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, the brother of
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.

Guaidó’s legal representation in the UK thus appears to enjoy a close
proximity to both the US foreign policy apparatus and the Latin American
right, and questions regarding conflicts of interest are likely to arise.

Despite his involvement in a damning series of scandals
<https://www.thecanary.co/investigations/2021/08/03/exclusive-juan-guaido-paid-uk-legal-fees-with-looted-venezuelan-money/>,
the UK government reemphasised its support
<https://twitter.com/HMGBecksB/status/1428094437377380355> for Guaidó on 18
August.


John McEvoy

Independent journalist @theCanaryUK, @jacobinmag, @ColombiaReports , &
International History Review.
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