11 Venezuelan oil company executives arrested on corruption charges

APD NEWS

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Venezuelan authorities have arrested 11 executives of the state oil company PDVSA on corruption charges, Venezuelan Prosecutor General Tarek William Saab said on Thursday.

The executives were arrested earlier this week and charged with inflating company contracts to defraud the state, among other crimes.

"As part of the investigations into the corruption scheme in the Orinoco Oil Belt ... we have succeeded in making 11 arrests in the past few hours," Saab said at a press conference.

At least 12 contracts were fraught with irregularities, including prices that were inflated by as much as 230 percent, generating more than 200 million U.S. dollars in losses for the state, he said.

In September, another eight oil company executives were arrested for the same corruption.

According to Saab, his predecessor, Luisa Ortega, failed to investigate public-sector wrongdoing when she was head of the Public Ministry.

Ortega, a member of the ruling socialist party who became a vocal government critic, fled the country in August after she was stripped of office and officials opened an investigation into her and her husband.

"In barely eight weeks, we have achieved what the former Public Ministry did in 10 years, and the results speak for themselves," said Saab.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)