Venezuelan crisis plays out in Wellington horse country
WELLINGTON — In a large house on Sunnyland Lane, deep in Wellington’s exclusive horse country, Alejandro Andrade and his family enjoy a life far from the hardships faced today by people in their home country of Venezuela.
Andrade, a former bodyguard to late President Hugo Chavez before rising to the rank of Venezuela’s national treasurer, has lived since at least 2012 in a 9,000-square-foot house with five bedrooms, marble floors and a swimming pool a few miles from the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.
The six-acre spread in the gated Palm Beach Point development also has a large barn for some of the 60 horses he owns. With names like Bon Jovi and Armani Z, the horses are often ridden by his son Emanuel, an Olympic equestrian whose social media accounts have made him a target for Spanish-language gossip sites that have poked fun at his jet-setting lifestyle with celebrities such as the American model Kendall Jenner and the matriarch of the Kardashian clan, Kris Jenner.
Alejandro Andrade, a former bodyguard to late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has lived in Wellington with his family since at least 2012. His son Emanuel has been a target of Spanishlanguage gossip sites.
But the lavish comforts haven’t completely insulated Andrade from the polit- ical and humanitarian crisis unfolding in his home country, where children are dying of malnutrition and people are rioting because of dire conditions under the government of President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s successor.
Repercussions from the deepening crisis have breached Andrade’s world 1,400 miles away in Welling- ton, often behind the scenes but sometimes in public.
Local Venezuelans protesting conditions at home have held demonstrations near his house. And Andrade has had strained relation- ships with other Venezue- lans in Wellington’s equestrian community, creating friction that has ensnared equestrian mogul Mark Bellissimo and attracted the attention of the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office.
Now, Andrade is facing a far more serious threat that critics say has been long overdue.
Federal authorities in South Florida are building a massive money-launder- ing case against him, The Miami Herald reported, to the delight of local Venezuelans who have long ques- tioned Andrade’s lavish life- style.
Andrade, 53, is suspected of laundering millions of dol- lars stolen from the Venezu- elan government to invest in real estate, show horses and other assets in South Flor- ida, The Herald reported March 31.
Andrade and several other leaders who worked or business with Chavez. partners Andrade could not be reached. His attorney did not respond to messages for comment. Emanuel Andrade, 21, hung up on a reporter who called seeking comment. people ernment, ness sectors in banking Venezuela’s are suspected and busi- govof enriching themselves by selling billions of dollars in bonds, capitalizing on fluctuating exchange rates and hiding their profits in Swiss bank accounts and U.S. investments, according to The Herald. An investigative journalist, Casto Ocando, tweeted in late March that Andrade was “accused” or “indicted” in U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg’s West Palm Beach courtroom in December. on doesn’t A Dec. criminal 22 name by docket, Rosenberg, the defen- sealed dant in a conspiracy to commit money laundering case brought by the federal government. But it lists the defendant’s lawyer as Curtis Miner, a former federal prosecutor who The Herald has reported represents Andrade. It is unknown whether Andrade is the defendant named in the sealed indictment. About the accusations, Otto Reich, the U.S. ambassa- dor to Venezuela from 1986 to 1989 who now runs an international consulting firm, said, “I’m not surprised. I know that he has been followed very closely by U.S. law enforcement for the last few years. “But I have to tell you,” Reich added, “that although he is reported to be one of the wealthiest of Chavez’s business partners, he is far from the only one. South Florida is crawling with Venezuelan boligarchs.” “oligarchs” “Boligarchs” and the — a 19th-cen- play off tury liberation hero Simon Bolivar, a personal hero to Chavez — is a term created by Venezuelans to describe Raising suspicions
Andrade is well known in Wellington’s equestrian circles, where has worked with Bellissimo, who runs the Winter Equestrian Festival as chief executive of Equestrian Sports Productions. In 2013, Andrade helped sponsor the festival, according to Ocando’s 2014 book “Chavistas in the Empire: Secrets, Tactics and Scandals of the Bolivarian Revolution in the United States.”
Andrade also has raised suspicion from local Venezuelans questioning how a man who started working as Chavez’s bodyguard could afford the Wellington home and luxuries described in published reports, such as a private plane and partnership in a South Carolina horse farm.
“It is impossible for a public officer of the Venezuelan government to afford a house like that in Wellington and to purchase 60 horses for his son,” said Franklin Hoet-Linares, an attorney from Venezuela who lives a few miles from Andrade.
“He is morally obligated to demonstrate that the money is legal. He only has a history of being the bodyguard of Chavez and then later the general treasurer.”
Hoet-Linares is an officer with the World Jurist Association, an international group of lawyers, judges and pro-
fessors. He said the association wants to draft an international treaty to recover money stolen from the Venezuelan government accounts and then spend it on rebuilding the country.
Hoet-Linares said he spoke to Andrade two years ago at a party in Wellington about cooperating with the WJA but didn’t get an answer.
“I looked directly in his eyes and I told him, ‘We need to talk. It is in your best interests to talk about these things.’ He said he would contact me in the future because he was getting ready to travel. He never did,” Hoet-Linares said.
Close with Chavez
Andrade’s close connection to Chavez goes back to the day when the leader of the “Bolivarian Revolution” almost took out his friend’s right eye while playing “chapita” — a game like baseball played with soda caps and a broomstick — at the presidential palace, media reports and local Venezuelans say.
Andrade eventually had his damaged eye replaced with a glass one, Hoet-Linares said. But Chavez supposedly felt guilty about the accident and started showing Andrade favor during his years in power.
Andrade, who graduated from the country’s military academy, participated in Chavez’s 1992 failed coup attempt against the president, according to The Herald. Six years later, when Chavez ran successfully for president, Andrade served as his bodyguard.
By 2007, he was named national treasurer and, a year later, president of the state-owned bank, Bandes.
As treasurer, Andrade was listed on Venezuela’s bank accounts with Swissbased HSBC. Those accounts were used to secretly deposit billions of dollars in public money, according to a 2015 report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. At one point, the account held $11.9 billion, but by the time Andrade became treasurer, the account linked to his name held $698 million, the documents showed.
HSBC was fined $1.9 billion by the U.S. government in 2012 for allowing drug traffickers, politicians and other customers to launder their money through its bank branches in the United States.
While it’s not illegal to have accounts in Switzerland, Venezuela’s accounts with HSBC raised questions about whether Chavez and his cronies were pilfering public money.
Andrade left the treasurer’s job and the presidency of Bandes in 2010. It’s unclear when he first arrived in Palm Beach County, but public records put him in Wellington as early as 2012.
The Sunnyland Lane house where Andrade lives is not listed in his name on public records. The house was purchased for $4.75 million in January 2012 by Telsey Properties Holding LLC, which was formed in Wellington in December 2011.
The only names associated with Telsey in state records are a Wellington lawyer and an accountant, who could not be reached for comment. However, state
Son pulled out knife
Local law enforcement records list the Sunnyland Lane house as Andrade’s residence. Some of those records include traffic violations involving Emanuel Andrade.
Andrade’s 26-year-old daughter, Maria, lives with her family in a house next door to her father on Sunnyland Lane, according to a 2016 traffic citation issued to Maria’s husband. The six-bedroom house, which is not listed in her family’s name, was purchased in June 2012 for $3.5 million by Alvaro Fernaud of Fort Lauderdale, property records show.
Palm Beach County sheriff ’s deputies were called to Alejandro Andrade’s house late one night in May 2016 when Emanuel pulled out a knife after getting into an argument with his father, according to a report.
A deputy arrived to find Emanuel sitting on a fountain in front of the house. “Emanuel said he was upset because he is tired of his father, Alejandro Andrade, controlling him,” a deputy wrote in a report.
In another police report, Emanuel Andrade was accused of verbally threatening the daughter of a Venezuelan horse-jumping course designer who has been outspoken about corruption in his home country.
Alejandro Andrade left the treasurer’s job and the presidency of Bandes in 2010. It’s unclear when he first arrived in Palm Beach County, but public records put him in Wellington as early as 2012.