Venezuelan graft probe suspects hold US passports

Five high-ranking officials arrested in Venezuela amid an anticorruption sweep of its state-owned oil company carry American passports, people with knowledge of the case said on Wednesday.

The men’s US citizenship affords them rights under international law, the State Department said, in a case that threatens to further strain relations between the Trump Administration and Venezuela as socialist President Nicolas Maduro sets out to refinance billions in foreign debt in the face of sanctions.

Two people confirmed to The Associated Press the dual citizenship for five of six Citgo officials detained on Tuesday. The two have direct knowledge of the case but insisted on speaking anonymously out of fear of retaliation from the government.

The executives of Houston-based Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, are suspected of embezzlement stemming from a $4 billion agreement to refinance company bonds, Venezuelan officials have said.

Big fish in net

One of the people with knowledge of the case said five of the detained men are vice presidents at Citgo and the sixth is acting president Jose Pereira, who has permanent residency status in the United States but no US passport.

Venezuela sits on the world’s largest oil reserves, but plunging crude prices in recent years have sent the country into financial crisis, with widespread shortages of food and medicine.

In a televised address Wednesday, Maduro said that he had ordered the Citgo investigation, but that he only learned from the US Embassy earlier in the day of the men’s dual citizenship.

“They are Venezuelans and they will be judged as corrupt thieves and traitors of their country,” Maduro said.

He also named as Citgo’s new president Asdrubal Chavez, a former oil minister and a cousin of the late President Hugo Chavez.

Earlier in the day, Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez calling the scheme “sabotage”.