Federal agents have also seized dozens of multimillion-dollar condos and homes — stretching from downtown Miami’s Brickell Avenue area to the exclusive Cocoplum neighborhood in Coral Gables — from other Venezuelan defendants accused of bribery and kickback schemes fueled by the nation’s oil company, PDVSA, under the socialist regimes of the late President Hugo Chavez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro.
Since targeting Venezuelan corruption in 2017, South Florida federal authorities have seized $450 million in bank accounts — luxury properties, show horses, high-end watches and a super-yacht — that belonged to more than a dozen government officials and business people in Venezuela, all charged with laundering billions of dollars into the United States, Switzerland and other countries.
The biggest catch of them all: Alejandro Andrade, Venezuela’s former national treasurer. He wrote several checks totaling $250 million to the U.S. government last fall, after the money had been transferred from his Swiss bank account to his defense attorneys in Miami. That payment was counted towards a $1 billion forfeiture judgment against him, federal authorities told the Miami Herald.
Andrade, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for money laundering, also lost the following in federal seizures: six South Florida real estate properties, including a Wellington horse farm; a waterfront Palm Beach residence and a Pinecrest estate ($33 million); as well as 14 show-jumping horses ($2 million), 35 designer watches ($1.5 million) and a fleet of 10 exotic foreign cars ($1 million), according to authorities.
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