The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has designated Venezuelan state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela under Executive Order 13850 for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy.
As Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PdVSA has long been a vehicle for corruption. A variety of schemes have been designed to embezzle billions of dollars from PdVSA for the personal gain of corrupt Venezuelan officials and businessmen. For example, a 2014 currency exchange scheme was designed to embezzle and launder around $600 million from PdVSA, money obtained through bribery and fraud. By May 2015, the conspiracy had allegedly doubled in amount to $1.2 billion embezzled from PdVSA.
