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A Venezuelan businessman who paid bribes whose criminal case implicates a prominent opponent of President Nicolás Maduro was sentenced Monday to five years of probation in recognition of his efforts to expose rampant corruption in the country’s judiciary.
Assistant US Attorney Michael Berger had sought a reduced sentence of nearly two years in prison for Carlos Urbano Fermin in recognition of his “significant help.”
But Judge Robert Scola handed down an even lesser sentence, siding with Fermín’s lawyers, who argued that their client should receive treatment similar to that of a defendant who cooperated in another bribery case in Venezuela.
In pleading guilty last year, Fermin admitted paying around $1 million in bribes to a “high-ranking prosecutor” in Venezuela as “insurance” against any investigation into his construction company’s extensive dealings with the giant. state oil tanker PDVSA.
The unidentified Venezuelan prosecutor is former Venezuelan attorney general Luisa Ortega, The Associated Press reported last year. Ortega has not been charged, but she previously said the bribery allegations were an unfounded attempt by the Maduro government to force her to confess and tarnish her reputation.
Upon receiving the sentence on Monday, Fermín described how he was forced to make a decision to pay bribes or see his 1,500-employee business destroyed or seized.
He also thanked the United States government for providing him with a safe haven that has allowed him to avoid a fate like that of his brother, who has been imprisoned in Venezuela since 2017 on what he considers false charges.
Judge Scola took the unusual step of sealing normally open court proceedings where details of the defendant’s cooperation were discussed.
Ortega, who long admired the late Hugo Chavez, broke with Venezuela’s socialist leadership in 2017 over what he called the country’s descent into dictatorship under Maduro.
For her outspoken views, she was removed from her position as Venezuela’s attorney general and quickly fled to neighboring Colombia, where she and a team of exiled prosecutors stepped up their attacks on corruption in their country and provided the International Criminal Court with evidence of violations. of human rights allegedly committed by the Maduro government.
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