Geneva probe opened into alleged oil trade corruption
Geneva’s public prosecutor has opened a criminal investigation into top managers at an oil trading firm in the city and has made two arrests, allegedly linked to a corruption scheme in Venezuela.
According to an Associated Press (AP) report on Monday, two executives at oil trading company Helsinge in Geneva have been arrested by Swiss prosecutors. The AP cited an anonymous source familiar with the case who said the arrests followed allegations made in a complaint linked to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
The Geneva Attorney General’s Office confirmed the investigation into unnamed Helsinge executives on suspicion of corruption of foreign officials and money-laundering, but declined to comment further.
Helsinge was set up 14 years ago in Panama, and operates offices in Miami, Geneva and the English Channel Island of Jersey.
It was reported earlier this month that PDVSA is suing a group of oil trading companies over a multi-billion-dollar corruption scheme to buy petroleum products below market value.
The lawsuit filed on March 6 accuses Helsinge of obtaining inside information and rigging bidding proceedings by bribing PDVSA officials in a scheme that yielded billions of dollars in illicit gains. The suit claims Helsinge also provided inside information to other trading firms including Lukoil Petroleum Ltd, Colonial Oil Industries Inc, Glencore Ltd, Vitol SA, and Trafigura AG.
First large-scale alpine solar plant approved in Switzerland
This content was published on
The approval was met with satisfaction by the project's organisers, but it also brings with it a certain amount of pressure.
Medieval squirrels may have ‘helped spread leprosy’
This content was published on
An examination of squirrel remains in the United Kingdom has opened up interesting questions and possibilities in terms of the history of the disease.
Swiss money laundering office registers record number of reports
This content was published on
The Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) registered a record number of reports of suspicious activity last year.
Two teens accused of planning terror attack released from custody
This content was published on
The Schaffhausen judiciary has released the two teenagers from custody who allegedly planned bomb attacks in Switzerland.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Swiss banks should be scrutinised for dirty money, says Venezuelan opposition activist
This content was published on
Speaking to swissinfo.ch at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy organised by the NGO UN Watch on Tuesday, Aristeguieta said that the Swiss foreign ministry and the country’s parliamentarians “remain cautious” when called upon to denounce the regime of President Nicolás Maduro. “We find support from European, Canadian and Latin American parliamentarians,…
This content was published on
“Today some of the biggest extraction and trading firms are based between Geneva, Zug and Lausanne. Switzerland has a great responsibility accepting them here and monitoring them so little,” declared SchweizerExternal link at the world premiere of his new documentary Trading ParadiseExternal link, shown at the Visions du Réel film festival in NyonExternal link last…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.