Venezuelan Prosecutor Reveals Alleged Money Laundering, Buying Oil Using Crypto

He continued, that these money laundering transactions were completed through intermediary platforms such as Kraken, a US-based cryptocurrency exchange, thus making the money laundering operations undetectable by Venezuelan supervisory authorities.

It also stated that, on several occasions, the party used cryptocurrency payments made overseas to handle oil sales and avoid detection.

These embezzled funds were also invested in cryptocurrency mining in the country, with El Aissami's knowledge.

As a result of this investigation, El Aissami, former Venezuelan Minister of Economy Simon Alejandro Zerpa, and a businessman who also facilitated the laundering of these funds through digital banks, Samark Lopez, were arrested.

While this is the first time the Venezuelan government has publicly acknowledged crypto involvement in settling crude oil payments, there are public records of the use of cryptocurrencies to broker oil sales in the country.

In October 2022, 5 Russian citizens and 2 Venezuelan citizens were indicted for money laundering and evading sanctions, by brokering oil shipments using dollar-pegged stablecoins.