MADRID: Spains National Court decided Wednesday to extradite the former security chief of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chvez to the United States to face charges of money laundering and belonging to a criminal organization involved in bribes of hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to the American extradition request, Adrin Velsquez allegedly received the bribes together with his wife Claudia Daz, Venezuelas former treasurer, from businessman Ral Gorrn.
In exchange for the money, Daz allegedly secured Gorrn the rights to exchange more than a billion dollars in foreign currencies in the U.S. on behalf of the Venezuelan government between 2011-2017. US prosecutors say those operations provided them with profits of hundreds of millions of dollars, which went to Velsquez and Daz and officials close to Chvez.
The couple allegedly transferred the assets from tax havens in the Caribbean to vaults in Liechtenstein where they kept the money in gold bars.
Dazs extradition from Spain to the U.S. was approved in October.
The couple enjoyed a rapid rise to power under Chvez. Daz, who initially worked as a nurse for Chvez, ended up becoming Venezuelas national treasurer. Velsquez, a captain in the army, became Chvezs security chief.
Velsquez and Daz recently received Spanish nationality, but Spains National Court ruled that that could not stop the extradition process.
Gorrn is in Venezuela.
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