Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez – Money Laundering
Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez has received allegations of being part of food corruption scandals in Venezuela.
According to media reports, Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez is a ‘privileged’ supplier for the Venzuelan Government.
He has been an associate of General Rodolfo Marco Torres, the former Food Minister and ex-president of Corporación de Abastecimiento y Servicios Agrícolas (Agricultural Supply and Services Corporation).
Recently, media reports have revealed several details of corrupt dealings between Tomas Benitez and Marco Torres.
Apparently, Marco signed numerous purchase orders for shell companies of Tomas Benitez. He abused Hugo Chavez’s food emergency law for this purpose.
This way, Tomas didn’t have to go through any bidding process.
Hence, Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez was able to securefood purchase orders worth millions of dollars for public organizations. This included the likes of Mercal, CASA, Abastos Bicentenario, PDVAl and others.
More Information on Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez:
Tomas claims to be the director of Afcom Corp, Dexton, Oil Gas Technology Inc, Alox International LLC, Domar Trading SS, Gestamer SA, Total Web Services, and Latin Investors.
The leaked Panama papers reveal six additional companies under the name of his partner, Ricardo Rojas Urbina.
Carlos Tablante and Marcos Tarre’s book El Gran Saqueo revealed that Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez acted as an intermediary for the purchase of meat from Brazil to Venezuela.
Again, media reports revealed that Marco Torres had signed the purchase order no. DCL – 56-6/2008. He was the CASA president at the time.
Here, the order authorized the purchase of 15,000 tons of meat at $4,740 to Domar Trading CA. Note that Domar Trading CA is a company of Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez.
This company is registered in Panama but is based in Miami. Additionally, Domar Trading CA acted as an intermediary as the meat was originally from Brazil.
Moreover, this deal took place when Tomas Elias was facing a lawsuit against Bariven in Florida, US.
There, the lawsuit was for breaching a $195 million contract for purchasing meat, sugar and chicken from a Brazilian company.
He had made the purchase through Dexton Validsa, Inc, another shell company of Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez.
Using Shell Companies for Money Laundering
According to the media, there was a dispute between officials of Bariven and PDVSA and they decided to leave Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez aside.
These officials included Luis Hernandez, Juan Carlos Chourio and George Kabboul.
Together, they decided to cut out the share of Tomas and complete the deal by themselves. This included $11.5 million in markups.
Moreover, they were going to buy directly from West Meat, the actual Brazilian supplier. However, Cuban government officials were also involved.
Hence, PDVSA had to pay Tomas Elias Gonzalea Benitez $100 million as compensation.
Additional Corrupt Dealings of Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez
In 2012, PDVSA was in charge of buying materials and equipment through Liaoning Northern Steel Pipes Co., LTD, a Chinese company.
However, it was not a Chinese company at all.
Instead, it was a company founded by Joseph Benoudiz and Pablo Cadenas in Texas, US. They were trying to hide the identity of the actual Asian supplier.
This deal involved over $56 million.
Diario Las Americas revealed that Benoudiz and Cardenas were among the owners of over 40 companies with the same addresses, directors and telephone numbers.
However, all of these companies had registrations in different jurisdictions including Hong Kong, Panama, Venezuela, Singapore, New Zealand and the United States.
Among these companies, Alox International LLC and Dexton stand out the most.
Tomas Elias Gonzales Benitez is a board member in both of them.
Conclusion
Evidently, Tomas Elias Gonzalez Benitez is a prominent player in the corrupt dealings of the Venezuelan government.
Apparently, he has multiple shell companies and takes part in global money laundering operations.
There are plenty of examples where high-level businessmen and government officials start using their position to indulge in corruption.
For example, Dan DiMicco is notorious for abusing his power during the Trump presidency to harm his competitors. Similarly, Thomas Flohr has gained notoriety for helping an African criminal save his millions.
Beware of Tomas!
