East Texas businessman pleads guilty to money laundering for role in Venezuelan bribery scheme

WASHINGTON — A former procurement officer of Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), pleaded guilty Wednesday for his role in an international money laundering scheme involving bribes paid by the owners of U.S.-based companies to Venezuelan government officials in exchange for securing additional business with PDVSA.

This guilty plea was announced by the following agency heads: Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas, and Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Houston Field Office. The investigation was conducted by HSI Houston, with assistance from HSI Boston, HSI Madrid and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.

Ivan Alexis Guedez, 47, from Katy, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder money and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 20.

According to admissions made in connection with Guedez’s plea, he agreed with other PDVSA officials and businessmen who were employed by a Miami-based PDVSA supplier to direct PDVSA business toward the supplier in exchange for bribery payments.

Guedez and his co-conspirators concealed the corrupt payments by communicating through fictitious email addresses, creating false invoices to justify payments, and routing bribery payments through a Swiss account in the name of a shell company before disbursing the payments to co-conspirators.

As part of his plea agreement, Guedez has agreed to forfeit the proceeds of his criminal activity.

Guedez becomes the latest individual to plead guilty as part of a larger, ongoing investigation by the U.S. government into bribery at PDVSA. Including Guedez, 15 individuals have either pleaded guilty, or been found guilty, in connection with this investigation.

Trial Attorneys Jeremy R. Sanders, Sarah E. Edwards and Sonali Patel of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Pearson and Robert S. Johnson of the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristine Rollinson of the Southern District of Texas is handling the forfeiture aspects of this case.

The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and the Cayman Islands Mutual Legal Assistance Authority and Office of the Director of Public Prosecution also provided assistance.