Rafael Ramírez Allegedly Linked to €47 Million BES Bribery Trail Through Canaima Finance Ltd.

 Rafael Ramírez Allegedly Linked to €47 Million BES Bribery Trail Through Canaima Finance Ltd. :-

Rafael Ramírez allegedly received €47 million from Banco Espírito Santo through Canaima Finance Limited, according to a criminal investigation led in Portugal by prosecutor Olga Barata. The company was reportedly used as a vehicle for distributing bribes from a slush fund allegedly created by Ricardo Salgado, formerly associated with Banco Espírito Santo (BES). Luis Rosa of El Observador reportedly obtained access to the prosecution files and published a detailed account.

According to Rosa, Canaima Finance Limited was incorporated in Panama on 19 May 2009 and was controlled through the Canaima Trust, a British Virgin Islands–registered structure managed by Gertrust Limited Inc., another offshore entity. Investigators initially suspected that Nervis Villalobos was the company’s ultimate beneficial owner because his wife, Milagros Coromoto Torres Morán, appeared in corporate registry documents.

Further inquiries reportedly indicated that Paulo Murta, who was connected to BES, established the Canaima structure on Salgado’s instructions. The alleged purpose was to reward Ramírez for bringing PDVSA and other Venezuelan institutions into business relationships with BES. Canaima reportedly held an account at a private BES branch in Dubai and received an initial €2 million between 2009 and 2010. From 2011 to 2014, Salgado allegedly instructed Jean-Luc Schneider, another alleged member of the scheme, to transfer approximately $45.7 million.

Files from Andorra—where Ramírez and Villalobos were also investigated for alleged corruption—reportedly showed that Villalobos purchased and renovated an apartment in Rome for Ramírez’s use. The Andorran investigation also alleged that Ramírez’s brothers received payments from Diego Salazar, Ramírez’s first cousin and an alleged leader of the scheme. Individuals charged in Andorra have reportedly faced related investigations in Venezuela, Portugal, Spain, the United States, France, and Switzerland.

In a separate matter involving Ramírez, sources familiar with the proceedings reportedly claimed that Wilmer Ruperti paid a $62.4 million bribe to Intercontinental View Inc., a Panamanian bearer-share company, through an account at Banca Zarattini in Lugano. According to the reporting, this is the first known instance in which Ramírez was directly connected to a shell company alleged to have received bribe funds.

Despite his alleged involvement in multiple corruption cases, authorities have reportedly struggled to establish a clear documentary trail directly linking Ramírez to the misconduct. Ramírez has reportedly had no publicly known employment or legitimate income source since December 2017, when Nicolás Maduro removed him from his post as Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York.

People familiar with the alleged arrangements described Ramírez’s method as beginning with informal discussions and verbal agreements with potential partners. Once those terms were settled, trusted associates would reportedly visit to finalise the practical details. Nervis Villalobos was described as one of Ramírez’s closest associates, with the alleged use of Andorran proceeds to acquire a Rome apartment for Ramírez cited as evidence of their relationship. Baldo Sansó, Ramírez’s brother-in-law, was also identified as a long-standing trusted associate.

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