MIAMI — Federal authorities are stepping up their efforts to seize millions of dollars deposited in Miami bank accounts that they say were used to pay kickbacks to Venezuelan government officials for inflated contracts with the national oil company, PDVSA.
The latest target: Natalino D'Amato, a contractor accused of selling $160 million worth of equipment to subsidiaries of the Venezuelan oil monopoly, transferring that money to Miami bank accounts and then paying bribes to government officials to secure the PDVSA deals, according to an indictment. Of that total, U.S. authorities have moved to take $45 million that D'Amato is holding in seven accounts at Wells Fargo, Bank of America and an investment company.
D'Amato, 61, a dual Italian and Venezuelan citizen, is charged in the 11-count indictment with a money laundering conspiracy and related offenses between 2013 and 2017. He is still at large living in Venezuela, but his lawyer says he plans to fight the charges and seek to recover his money frozen by the feds.
"Natalino D'Amato is innocent and is not cooperating with the United States, which is only interested in his hard-earned money from his legitimate businesses," attorney David O. Markus told the Miami Herald Monday.
Markus' emphasis on his client's determination to fight the money laundering charges is more than defense posturing. His client's case is similar to another brought in Miami earlier this year — one that ended tragically in Venezuela.
In September, another Venezuelan businessman charged in Miami with laundering millions of dollars from PDVSA oil contracts was gunned down by a motorcycle assassin in Venezuela because he was suspected of cooperating with federal prosecutors and Homeland Security Investigations in Miami.
Leonardo Santilli died from several gunshot wounds in what police described as a possible professional hit, Venezuelan authorities said. Witnesses said the assailant fired as many as eight times at Santilli before leaving on the motorcycle, according to news media reports and an Instagram video.
In March of this year, Santilli was charged in Miami with playing a central role as a broker in a nearly $150 million money laundering scheme involving inflated oil contracts with the Venezuelan government under President Nicolas Maduro. Five subsidiaries of the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, sent the money to his two South Florida businesses to buy equipment and other supplies for them in 2014-2017, according to a criminal complaint.
Santilli spent about one-third of that money on actual goods for the PDVSA subsidiaries and then diverted the rest through South Florida bank accounts to himself, his family members, Venezuelan government officials and national oil company executives, according to the criminal complaint. Prosecutors obtained warrants from a federal magistrate judge to freeze 17 bank accounts controlled by Santilli and his two companies in the Miami area. The total take: nearly $45 million.
Over the past four years, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Berger and other prosecutors have charged more than a dozen Venezuelan businessmen and government officials with stealing billions of dollars from PDVSA through inflated contracts, sham loans and currency exchange schemes. Several businessmen, including Santilli and now D'Amato, have been charged with setting up companies and bank accounts in Miami to steer millions in bribes to Venezuelan officials and state oil company executives.
