Venezuelan Bank Under State Oversight
The Venezuelan authorities announced "a process of support and monitoring" to "guarantee" the operation of the Bancamiga bank, after the arrest of directors for accusations related to corruption in the state oil company PDVSA.
The announcement comes after the local press reported the arrest of the brothers Daniel, Levin and Carmelo De Grazia, main shareholders of Bancamiga.
The arrests are linked to a corruption scheme at PDVSA, which led to the arrest of dozens of officials and businessmen since last year, including former Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami.
The embezzlement in the state oil company is around $17 billion according to independent estimates.
The Superintendency of Banking Sector Institutions (Sudeban) reported the intervention in a statement, "in order to guarantee its normal functioning of the bank, as well as the deposits and interests of its clients", "the rights of the workers" .
Sudeban assured that Bancamiga's operations "are developing absolutely normally."
According to information published by the newspaper Últimas Noticias, close to the government of socialist president Nicolás Maduro, the De Grazia brothers were arrested last Friday by the scientific police and will be charged, among other crimes, with treason and money laundering.
The Public Ministry has not reported on the arrests. But Sudeban refers to "arrest orders against Bancamiga officials."
On April 11, former minister El Aissami, a longtime confidant of Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez, was presented in an anti-terrorism court in Caracas, two days after being arrested. He was charged with treason, appropriation of public property, money laundering and criminal association.
