Former governor of Edo state, Lucky Igbinedion fell into the hands of Venezuelan con men who scammed him of N3.3 billion, Premium Times reports.
According to the source, Igbinedion may be insolvent as “two US-based law firms have walked away from a $600 million lawsuit he instituted against the alleged mastermind and the Venezuelan state owned oil company, Petroleos De Venezuela S.A (PDVSA), over his inability to pay retainer as low as N627,000.00 ($3,800.00)”.
The former governor who has been accused of stealing over N3 billion from Edo State’s treasury, was swindled by fraudsters as he was looking to cash in on the fuel importation business.
Premium Times reports:
The source reports that “Managing Director of Skanga Energy and Marine Limited, a company formed by Mr. Igbinedion and his brother, Bright Igbinedion in 1992, approached the then Venezuelan Trade Consul to Nigeria, Enrique Arrundell, about the prospect of importing petrol, aviation fuel, and diesel from the South American country.”
“According to documents filed with a US District Court in New York, Mr. Arrundell advised Mr. Imoukhuede that the best way to get fuel was to go through a PDVSA approved agent”, they added.
Mr. Arrundell then introduced Mr. Imoukhuede to Arevenca, a fraudulent firm owned by alleged notorious Venezuelan conman, Francisco Gonzalez.
That meeting with Mr Gonzalez marked the beginning of Mr Igbinedion’s woes.
Mr. Igbinedion and his front, Mr. Imoukhuede claimed in court that they did due diligence checks on Arevenca through the Venezuelan embassy in Abuja. They claim that embassy officials confirmed Arevenca as a reputable Venezuelan business concern and validated documents provided by Arevenca that supposedly showed a relationship with PDVSA.
But it has since turned out that Arevenca might be a complete fraud. PDVSA has since said in court that it has no records of any relationship with Arevenca.
Arevenca is a registered corporation under Venezuelan law but was most recently headquartered in Aruba. Its subsidiaries are: Arevenca AKTM, registered in British Virgin Islands; Arevenca SL, registered in Spain; and Arevenca Aruba Holding NV.
Others are Arevenca Bank, Arevenca Foundation, Fly Aruba Suriname, Arevenca Mining and Arevenca Petroleum Company registered in offshore tax haven, Suriname. There is Arevenca Finances Holding registered in Switzerland and Arevenca Ivory Coast.
Many of these subsidiaries are shell companies or exist only in names.
A Canadian-based freelance journalist, Steven Bodzin, who worked as an energy reporter in Venezuela and has written a number of exposés on Arevenca, revealed that Arevenca’s website is a repository of mind-numbing lies meant to hoodwink mostly unsuspecting international investors.
For instance, on its website, Arevenca claims to have a global refining capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day and plans to build a two million barrel per day refinery in Ivory Coast.
It also claims to have a fleet of 72 ships.
However, the company with the highest refining capacity in the world as at September 2013, Reliance Jamnagar Refinery, India, has a refining capacity of only 1.24 million barrels per day.
In fact, Arevenca is not listed among the top ten refineries in the world. The only Venezuela-based refinery in the top 10, Paraguana Refining Centre, belongs to PDVSA and has a processing capacity of just 955,000bpd.
And despite claiming to have 75 vessels, a PREMIUM TIMES search on Lloyds Ship Directories shows that Arevenca does not operate from any of Venezuelan’s 16 ports. There is also no proof that the company is building a two million barrel per day refinery in Ivory Coast as it claimed.
These are just few of the web of lies contained in Arevenca’s website. Other false claims made by the company to defraud investors can be found on Mr. Bodzin’s blog.
In October 2006, Mr. Imoukhuede, who was Mr. Igbinedion’s schoolmate, arrived at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas and was ushered into the VIP lounge of the facility and later given a luxury ride to the exquisite InterContinental Tamanaco, rated among the top three hotels in the country.
It was at Intercontinental Tamanaco that Mr. Imoukhuede had initial negotiation with Mr. Gonzalez and an unnamed Nigerian.
After the meeting, Skanga reached a tentative agreement to buy “petroleum products” from Arevenca. Arevenca also agreed to give Skanga the first right of refusal to buy its AGO (diesel), PMS (premium motor spirit) DPK (kerosene), Jet Al fuel, Bitumen and Fuel oil.
The deal was to take off with a 35,000 metric tones of AGO in the first instance and then grow into about three cargoes monthly, according to an official statement by Skanga.
Bank transfer documents show that Skanga paid $1.05 million of the $1.4 million cost of freight.
Skanga’s officials claimed during interrogation in court that their company made these payments ($580,000 and $470,000) based on the proof of certain “inducement documents which included an alleged PDVSA bill of lading.
After Skanga made these initial payments, it became trapped. The duping of the former governor and his corrupt clan began in full swing.
Read the full report at Premium Times.
