Venezuelan national pleads guilty to money laundering in connection with Petroleos de Venezuela bribery case
Abraham Edgardo Ortega, former executive director of financial planning at Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. Ortega, a Venezuelan national, admitted to accepting $5 million in bribes in order to favor a Russian bank and a French company in loan transactions. Ortega also admitted to accepting bribes totaling $12 million in an embezzlement scheme, and to laundering the money through a complicated false-investment scheme.