Venezuela: 21 officials, businessmen arrested in oil scheme

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s attorney general says 21 people, including senior officials in President Nicolás Maduro’s government and business leaders, have been arrested in connection with a corruption scheme involving international oil sales. Prosecutor Tarek William Saab said the scheme involved selling oil through Venezuela’s cryptocurrency oversight agency in parallel to the state-run PDVSA. The oversight agency allegedly signed contracts for the loading of crude “without any type of administrative control or guarantees,” violating legal regulations, Saab said. Once the oil was marketed, “the corresponding payments were not made” to the state oil company. The arrests come days after Venezuela’s once-powerful oil minister resigned amid allegations of corruption against associates.