MIAMI — A former top lawyer of Venezuela’s oil ministry who played a central role in a $1.2 billion money-laundering scheme fueled by government corruption was sentenced to more than four years in prison by a Miami federal judge Thursday — punishment that was less than half of what prosecutors sought for the ex-foreign official.
Carmelo Urdaneta Aqui, the former legal counsel for Venezuela’s Ministry of Oil and Mining, was convicted last year of accepting tens of millions of dollars in bribes and investing some of his illicit payments in a Sunny Isles Beach high-rise condo and other real estate in the Miami area. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams imposed a $35,000 fine as part of Urdaneta’s sentence along with approving the feds’ seizure of $49 million worth of assets, including his luxury condo and Swiss bank account.
Urdaneta, 48, is the fourth defendant to be sent to prison in the massive money-laundering conspiracy case. It centers around private business loans to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, that were repaid with inflated returns through a lucrative government-controlled currency exchange system during the administrations of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro.
