Political prisoners? The complex plot of the De Grazia brothers and the PDVSA-Crypto case

Political prisoners? The complex plot of the De Grazia brothers and the PDVSA-Crypto case

The approval of the Amnesty Law in February 2026 and its subsequent application -to specific cases- as established from the first day, opened a range of options and revived controversial and highly contentious cases that still make waves in Venezuelan political and judicial life.

 

One of the most striking cases is that of brothers Carmelo and Daniel De Grazia, former owners of Bancamiga, who were arrested in April 2024 by the Cicpc and who would be charged with the crimes of treason, misappropriation of funds, money laundering and criminal association, in the context of the scandalous Pdvsa-Crypto plot, which also had as star figures the former minister Tareck El Aissami, former deputy Hugbel Roa and the businessman Samark López, among many others.

 

Since the start of their legal proceedings, they have been defined as "political prisoners of Chavismo," however, this is a classification that faces opposition even within the ruling party itself, due to the background of their arrest.

 

The De Grazia tragedy 

The immediate past of the banking brothers did not begin on that April day in 2024 when they were arrested. Numerous reports and facts published before and since have revealed a reality that goes far beyond what is being said about the case today.

 

How did they get there? The De Grazia family was part of the “PDVSA-Crypto” plot, “and Bancamiga was at the center of the tangle.”

 

A report by the La Gran Aldea website reveals a scheme that calls into question the "political prisoner" label that is being imposed on the brothers, who for a long time operated in volatile environments.

 

Bancamiga's explosive growth since 2015, evidenced by a capital injection that raised its value to $25.5 million, consolidated the relatives of opposition politician Carmelo De Grazia as the bank's main directors and shareholders at the time of his capture.

 

According to an investigation by Armando.info, that year marked the entry of José Chacín Bello, cousin of Samark López, as the second shareholder (16.75%), sharing the position with José Luis Queijeiro Taboada and only surpassed by De Grazia himself (32.32%), with Armando Iachini of Constructora Yamaro also joining with 7.76%; notes the report by La Gran Aldea.

 

PDVSA CRYPT

According to the same data from Armando Info's investigation reported by La Gran Aldea, the brothers' activity in 2014 raised alarms at the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) due to "non-transparent" transfers of $200 million from Panama to Barbados; however, it did not become public knowledge.

 

Then there is Compass Bank, founded in 2013 on the island of Dominica; an institution where, according to reports, the De Grazia brothers made the most business in a triangulation scheme involving, among others, El Aissami and his front man Samark López, who was said to be the capital behind Bancamiga up to that point.

 

The meeting with PDVSA

The PDVSA-Crypto scheme involved the illicit resale of oil and the use of Bancamiga to hold foreign currency and launder funds through intermediaries in Asia, benefiting figures such as Tareck El Aissami and the De Grazia brothers. The scheme, which included Compass Bank and the use of cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions, resulted in an estimated loss of $3 billion for the state-owned oil company, according to ArmandoInfo. The embezzlement, which operated from 2017, led to a wave of arrests in 2023 following legal intervention.

 

In 2024 it was the turn of Daniel, Levin and Carmelo De Grazia, the directors of Bancamiga; an institution that shortly afterwards passed into the hands of businessman José Simón Elarba, who in 2026 is making headlines amid complaints from the De Grazia family about the "obstructed" process of the brothers' release from prison.

 

The leader and cousin of the detainees, Americo De Grazia, directly accuses him of pressuring the brothers; although the case, while it may have questionable processes, has been framed within the denunciations of the large corruption network from which its most visible face, Tareck El Aissami, has not yet escaped, as he has not been taken into account for a possible amnesty.

 

To date, the brothers remain in prison serving their sentences for the massive PDVSA-Crypto scheme for which they were actually arrested and subsequently charged.

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