The government was forced to go back on itself and announced there would be a vote on Patersons suspension. The charges pressed at the end of the investigation consist of a foundation for a trial. For over five decades we have been applying our depth of specialist experience to oil refining, logistics, storage and financing across the world. Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports from the OPEC nation and the lions share of government revenues. If youre rich and want a place of power in politics, donate 3 million to the Conservative Party and youre likely to gain a peerage. The offer letter, seen by Reuters with its date redacted, said that Rosneft had agreed with PDVSA to pay BB Energys $26 million debt to the Venezuelan state oil company and then to seek payment from BB Energy via a bank transfer or an equivalent oil cargo. Whatever youre interested in, theres a free openDemocracy newsletter for you. The company opened an office in Cuba, he explained, because he has been a resident of Havana like his wife and three children, all of them born in Cuba and Cuban citizens. The contents of the contract were never known to the Lebanese people, despite costing the treasury billions of dollars. I think we have more confidence in what didnt happen than what did.. The women pushing boundaries in Pakistans rural milk marketIn rural Pakistan women milk cows, but male relatives take the milk to male-run collection centres. Companies with Cuban capital or activities on the island. Link to this Report. Corruption takes many forms, ranging from grand corruption - the capture of high office of government by elites and the uses of these offices for private gain - to "petty" corruption - the use of bribes or other However, Reuters was unable to independently verify if the agreement was implemented and remains in force. Starmer last week called on Johnson to answer, apologise and act over sleaze allegations. Registered in: Panama Linked countries: Cuba Agent: Mossack Fonseca Search in: The Panama Papers data is current through 2015 read more Incorporated: 21-DEC-1984 Status: Active Connections: Linkurious and Neo4j Officer (3) Intermediary (1) Explore more from Panama Papers Mossack Fonseca The players . Hayes declared his role at the oil. Its stated aims are to challenge what it describes as the extremely damaging and harmful policies designed to mitigate climate change. Some 22 of the biggest donors have gained a seat in the House of Lords in the past 11 years. During his time as energy minister, Hayes caused controversy by refusing to support any further expansion to onshore wind power, describing wind turbines as a terrible intrusion. . The UK energy industry is facing a wave of bankruptcies amid a gas supply crunch that has sent electricity prices soaring, leaving suppliers vulnerable . The development has had mixed reactions. BB Naft does not appear, however, among the subsidiaries listed on BB Energys Web site. How the 61-year-old embargo is blocking Cubans from finding sponsors in the U.S. The Cuban Embassy in Washington did not answer a comment request for this story. The allegations did not prevent the Energy Ministry from awarding it a spot fuel import contract in January to partially fill the gap created by the end of the contract with Sonatrach, after the latter did not renew the deal. The report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Fuel for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers decries the environmental evangelism and virtue signalling of the governments plan to phase out new petrol and diesel engines by 2030. It is up to the criminal court to render a decision on the merits of the case. His register of interests says he currently earns 50,000 in the role, for about 11 days work a year. There have been unconfirmed reports that Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Calleja divorced Deborah Castro Espin in recent years, but he remains in charge of Grupo de Administracin Empresarial S.A., (GAESA) and the governments signature port of Mariel development project. The branch he was managing, which was a subject for the report of the General Inspectorate of Finance, was dissolved. In 2003, for example, BB Naft agreed to guarantee and meet the obligations of a loan obtained by BB Energy (Asia) Pte Ltd. from the Standard Chartered Bank of Singapore. MPs are elected to provide a voice for their constituents in Westminster, but when they also have lucrative side-jobs for private companies it raises questions over whose interests they are really serving, said Alex Runswick, senior advocacy manager at Transparency International UK. Successive . Records of a meeting in Dubai in March of 2011 reflect a decision to significantly reduce the capital of BB Naft, held by BB Energy Holdings NV., from $8 million to $1.050 million. The upgrade of the Number 10 flat is now expected to be the subject of another inquiry. The instructions to the BB Naft shareholders were dated and signed in Beirut, but the agreement for the guarantee was signed by lawyers and verified by the office of the BNP Paribas bank in Marrousi, Greece. Their combined donation amounts to a total of 54 million. The Energy Ministry responded to criticism by explaining that resorting to large oil refineries made it possible to limit the commissions charged by intermediaries, and therefore limited the risk. They have not been called to account for the 37 billion spent on a failing test and trace system. ZR Energy DMCC wrote on its website, ZR Energy DMCC and Mr. Zaouk are incidental victims of this sinister power struggle.. Former prime minister Theresa May has made 842,526 giving paid speeches since March 2020. BB Energy registered a company in Texas, BB Energy USA LLC., in 2014. The PDVSA source said that Rosneft credited PDVSA the amount, minus an undisclosed fee, and then started talks with BB Energy to recover the sum it advanced PDVSA. We made a separate appeal to examine the contract with Sonatrach, but it was rejected. Following a scandal over the delivery of tainted fuel to the state-owned lectricit du Liban, 22 defendants will appear before the criminal court that upheld the charges, which include accepting bribes and forgery. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Listed as a director of one of the companies is a brother of Gen. Luis Alberto Rodrguez Lpez-Calleja husband of Cuban ruler Raul Castros daughter and powerful head of the Cuban armed forces business conglomerate, GAESA. A lawyer for Panamericana, Katiuska Peado Moreno, and a former commercial attach at the Cuban embassy in London, Alejandro Gutirrez Madrigal, are listed as the beneficiaries of shares in Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd. worth $50,000. The new certificates, for 800 shares, were to be issued in the names of 10 members of the Bassatne family, including 160 shares for Riad Bassatne. Responding to Reuters story, Reliance strongly denied making any payments via third parties to PDVSA. Hayes, who was once described as the champion of the motorist during his time as a transport minister, also recently contributed to a report critical of the government's net-zero policies. 11:07 AM | 31 Jan, 2023 . : . Little is known inside the island about the Cuban governments companies abroad, but Havana economist Omar Everleny wrote in the early 2000s that there were more than 100 entities with the participation of Cuban capital, founded as mixed [state-private] companies or as branches of companies based on the island operating abroad in areas such as construction, agriculture, food, medicine, mining, finance and science., Everleny, recently fired from the University of Havanas Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, noted the paradox that a country that lacks the capital for its own development has invested in other countries. The motive, he speculated, is the U.S. embargo that forced the establishment of a network of companies around the world to warehouse and market products from the sea, among them lobsters and shrimp., Today the export of products from the fishing industry is carried out through those companies, he said, adding that Cuban officials also created an international network of companies to warehouse and sell the famous Cuban cigars.. It is noteworthy that Mr. Fawal is not authorized to sign the companys contracts, and he assured the Lebanese judiciary that he is merely a representative of Sonatrach in the negotiation processes, and not in concluding contracts. Independent MP Paula Yacoubian told LOGI that she believed Lebanese and Algerian mafias were involved in a corruption scheme tied to the fuel imports. PDVSAs contemplated payment agreement with Rosneft is part of a series of methods used by Maduros government to gain access to cash, including selling Central Bank gold reserves. MPs duly voted for it. At this stage, all defendants are innocent until found guilty, the lawyer said. Aguilar also has served as a deputy in the legislative National Assembly. 310. The contract may be summarized as follows: Sonatrach will give its name to the shipments of Baha Bassatne, who buys fuel from the Swiss company Vitol, for 3.5 dollars per metric ton, while he makes 25 dollars as profit in his deals with the end customer in Lebanon. After the Reuters story ran, Rosneft strongly denied the report, describing it as a blatant lie and a provocation against Rosneft. At parliament we will try to make sure that high level responsibility is also explored - including all the ministers who stayed silent over the years., Fuel import scandal shows why transparency matters. NAFT TRADING S.A. All individuals involved in this initiative - including co-founders, advisory board members, and experts - are serving in their personal capacity. Tory MP Bill Wiggin gained 25,000 in bonuses and fees from a tax dodging wealth management firm in Bermuda. It said it had purchased Venezuelan oil from Rosneft that was provided by PDVSA to the Russian company in repayment of past loans, so no money was flowing back to Maduros government. Image: Cables of the electric generators in the Lebanese capital BeirutCredit: ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images, except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa. Its ownership was in the form of anonymous bearer shares the owners are whoever has those shares. He has also compared climate activists to radical Islam. Last month he and. As ordinary people lost their jobs and relied on furlough, many MPs increased their income from the start of the pandemic. One knowledgeable source who asked to remains anonymous said the Cuban government also has registered companies, ships and airplanes in Panama and other countries to get around the embargo and avoid court-ordered seizures to settle its many debts abroad. The proposed payment mechanism is the latest sign of the growing proximity of Venezuelas cash-strapped government to Russia as the United States tightens a financial noose around Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who it describes as a dictator. Which groups shape the stories we see in the press; which voices are silenced, and why? The relationship between the BB Energy Group and Petroecuador appears to have lasted until recent days. Translation by Joelle El Khoury. The need for transparency in that case is even more pressing given the fact that the director of the Oil Installations, Sarkis Hleiss, is at the center of investigations into the fuel import scandal. The trial is a step in the right direction, he said. This was in addition to his 49,140 directors salary. Three of the four experts said the U.S. Treasury had the latitude to act against companies or governments it deemed to be providing material support to a sanctioned entity, like PDVSA. BBC Arabic's Moe Chreif tells us about the biggest corruption investigation in the history of Lebanons energy sector, which resulted in allegations involving multi-million dollar agreements, bribery, and shipments of substandard oil. Santiago De Cuba. Venezuelas oil ministry, its information ministry - which handles media for the government - and PDVSA did not respond to questions. The practice has been banned since 2019, after a scientific report found it was not possible to accurately predict the probability of earthquakes linked to drilling. After the return of Ould Kaddour to Sonatrach as its general manager in April 2017, it was not long before he imposed yet another intermediary besides Baha Bassatne. ZR Energy DMCC was not aware of any deficiency and relied on the representations of independent and internationally recognised third-party testers who certified that it was on specification when ZR Energy DMCC handled the cargo, a representative of ZR Energy DMCC said. Standards commissioner Kathryn Stone has carried out three investigations into Johnson in the past three years. Instead of seeking to polish and rescue parliaments reputation, Labour and the unions should be campaigning for a complete clean out of corrupted MPs. BB Naft was listed in the Cuban registry of foreign companies operating on the island as of April of this year, with Riad Bassatne as director. The Public Prosecution Office began investigating them to the backdrop of the ongoing debate, in Lebanon, over spoiled fuel bought by the electricity company from the Algerian oil company, Sonatrach, which ranked thirteenth in the ranking of oil companies in the world. Labour supports essentially the same system as now. By subscribing, you contribute to our financial and editorial independence. Still, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces sanctions, has given no indications it would take that route. Its official address is the same as that of BB Energy Trading: 140 Brompton Rd., London, SW3 1HY, United Kingdom. These high paid speeches have addressed bank JP Morgan Chase and World 50 Incan exclusive club for senior executives. Procs du fuel dfectueux : 22 personnes sur le banc des accuss. Ltd., BB Energy (Gulf) DMCC and BB Holding S.A.L. The Lebanease newspaper, Al-Akhbar, published a tweet by the Former Energy Minister, Nada Boustani, in which she spoke of ministerial reports confirming the poor quality of fuel and demanding to go on with punitive measures against the suppliers. A former Conservative minister who has criticised climate change policies and joined calls to restart fracking has been paid 150,000 by an oil firm, openDemocracy can reveal. Last month, he also joined calls from Tory MPs to allow shale fracking to resume in the UK. This is why parliament cannot be relied on for fundamental climate action. Other leaked Mossack Fonseca documents show the interwoven complex of offshore companies created by the Cuban government to import and export goods and invest funds abroad with the assistance of the Panamanian law firm.