So the seller had to be told that payment would be in euros from a bank in Spain, for example, and Cuba lost on the currency exchange.. They also considered that the profit margin of the company (3.5 USD) was fair, as the company is not charged with any liabilities. ZR Group Holding SAL and ZR Energy DMCC are two separate corporate entities. In his self-pitying resignation letter he blamed the cruel world of politics. Whatever youre interested in, theres a free openDemocracy newsletter for you. 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. The Office for Budget Responsibility warned in July that while the costs of reaching net zero are significant, they could be much higher if the government delays acting until 2030. The Cuban government used the Panama law firm involved in the Panama Papers to create a string of companies in offshore financial havens that allowed it to sidestep the U.S. embargo in its commercial operations. We hope to welcome you among our subscribers. For some 15 years, the public were informed that Lebanon was purchasing fuel from the Algerian state company Sonatrach. Labiofam S.A. bought all the shares of BioAsia Ltd. in 2009. The procedures may take a long time, particularly because the number of defendants is high. BB Energy is one of the world's leading independent energy trading companies. 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. Those sanctioned include the oil trading firms Swissoil Trading and Malta-based Elemento Ltd., as well as Swissoil owner Philipp Paul Vartan Apikian, Spanish-Venezuelan citizen Francisco Javier D'Agostino Casado, and core facilitator and Italian citizen Alessandro Bazzoni. Both Mr. Rahmeh and ZR Group have been subjected to a politically motivated witch-hunt underpinned by a campaign to distract from Lebanons political failings. Few traders had room to receive physical barrels at Cushing. 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. and Promotora de Cigarros S.L., two companies registered in Spain and involved in the sale of Cuban cigars. In an email, an official wrote that Matt Hancock, health secretary at the time, would send a letter to universities asking for loans of the various things we need. The response of Sonatrachs representative in Lebanon, Tarek Fawal, was quick, as he declared the companys willingness to cooperate with the Ministry of Energy to resolve the issues related to what he called the lack of conformity of the last shipment of fuel to the specifications, noting that this shipmentestimated at 38,000 tonswas examined by three different international offices who confirmed that it in fact met the specifications stipulated in the contract. Under the new approach described to Reuters, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has at least twice asked its clients to make payments to Rosneft for Venezuelan oil, according to the documents. By April 28, Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Ghada Aoun said 21 people had been arrested in the case, mostly employees of the Oil Installations. One Bloomberg report showed BB Energy. Multimillionaire donors seem almost guaranteed a peerage, according to a report by the Open Democracy thinktank and the Times newspaper. The document also said that the payment by Reliance to Rosneft would also allow PDVSA to meet unspecified contractual obligations to Rosneft. I understand Mr. Dupont-Willemin is a Swiss lawyer and I believe it is for the documents to be more transparent and trustworthy. Some 22 of the biggest donors have gained a seat in the House of Lords in the past 11 years. Such transactions do not lead to any consequent payment to PDVSA and do not violate U.S. sanctions or policies.. Ukraine's track record of massive corruption in energy is a sadly familiar story. The Venezuelan companys shipping schedules showed that Reliance was loading a cargo from PDVSA as recently as April 20. BB Energy, a leading global independent energy trading company, is pleased to announce that it has successfully refinanced and expanded a$580 millionsenior secured borrowing base credit facility (the Facility). One of the markets may have been Ecuador. Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports from the OPEC nation and the lions share of government revenues. An accountant for the British company All Worlds Food Ltd, Jose Da Silva, answered: I do not know the reasons why the documents were certified by a Swiss notary. Former prime minister Theresa May has made 842,526 giving paid speeches since March 2020. State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corp., or BPC, has awarded the building contract to a consortium of Japan's Marubeni Corp., Vitol Asia Pte. The spoiled fuel scandal is a result of the commercial practices of the Sonatrach executives in collusion with Lebanese merchants, both of which were condoned by the relevant authorities in both Algeria and Lebanon. There seems to be a tendency to prosecute managers and employees of the Lebanese Al-Zahrani Electricity Company as accomplices and facilitators of these operations; and while ZR Energys owners are being interrogated, the investigations will expand to reach the date of signing the contract with the Algerian company in 2005. The government was forced to go back on itself and announced there would be a vote on Patersons suspension. Every time something was purchased in dollars, it could not be done because the Cuban checks in dollars were automatically canceled because the dollars belong to the U.S. Federal Reserve, the source said. This means that the judiciary has ruled pro forma for now. Swiss lawyer Albert-Louis Dupont-Willemin appears as a director of several of the Cuban companies, among them Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd. and Pescatlan S.A. Fuel poverty and energy efficiency are inevitably linked, the less efficient a property is the costlier it is to heat. 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. 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. 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. The Sunday Times newspaper has revealed a phone call on 9 April last year between Paterson and the Tory peer Lord Bethell, who was the minister responsible for handing out contracts. By Irina Slav - Sep 20, 2021, 9:30 AM CDT. 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. Stormy days are ahead for Algeria's state-owned oil company Sonatrach, currently rocked by two alleged corruption cases. Its official address is the same as that of BB Energy Trading: 140 Brompton Rd., London, SW3 1HY, United Kingdom. They escaped after senior adviser Dominic Cummings showed there was one law for the rich and another for the rest. The CEEC was set up after H&F Council declared a climate and ecological emergency in July 2019. The similar logo and name are explained through an agreement between the two firms that gave ZR Energy DMCC the right to use the brand and credit facility of ZR Group Holding SAL. BB Naft shareholder Wael Bassatne told El Nuevo Herald that his company did not violate the U.S. embargo because it is not registered and does no business in the United States. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Add your voice to our engaged subscriber community and be part of the change. Then Paterson resigned, cancelling future parliamentary votes. Tory MP Bill Wiggin gained 25,000 in bonuses and fees from a tax dodging wealth management firm in Bermuda. The PDVSA source said the agreement had received the consent of all three parties and was being executed. BB Energy Location 12-14 Ansdell St, London, Essex, W8 5BN, United Kingdom Description Read More Industry Thats the case of Racuza S.A., incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. The branch he was managing, which was a subject for the report of the General Inspectorate of Finance, was dissolved. Responding to Reuters story, Reliance strongly denied making any payments via third parties to PDVSA. BBE Renewables was established to diversify from Oil & Gas by investing and financing renewable projects. Still, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces sanctions, has given no indications it would take that route. After the Reuters story ran, Rosneft strongly denied the report, describing it as a blatant lie and a provocation against Rosneft. The case is now with the Mount Lebanon Criminal Court, presided over by Mohamad Mortada. The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) has absolved itself of any wrongdoing in the sale of 942,000 barrels of crude to Lebanon-based oil firm, BB Energy. Forgery, using counterfeit documents, bribery, fraud and professional misconduct these are the charges brought against 22 people and entities following a pretrial investigation into a case of tainted fuel delivered to the state-owned lectricit du Liban to supply its plants. Russia has publicly said the U.S. sanctions are illegal and it would work with Venezuela to weather them. And the case of Sabradell S.A., headed by Panamericana director Jos L. Fernndez de Cosso Domnguez for a time and dissolved in 2008. How the 61-year-old embargo is blocking Cubans from finding sponsors in the U.S. Procs du fuel dfectueux : 22 personnes sur le banc des accuss. Fresh scrutiny has been applied after it was revealed former Attorney General Sir Geoffrey Cox was being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds advising the British Virgin Islands' government in a corruption investigation. 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. 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. A State Department spokeswoman said: We encourage companies, banks, and other institutions to refrain from providing services that support (Maduros) repressive practices.. 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. They have not been called to account for the 37 billion spent on a failing test and trace system. Panama Papers: Secret buyer seals deal for South Beach condo, U.S. investigated energy weapon, even aliens, but Havana Syndrome origin still unclear, Amid controversy, Biden administration shortens visit by Cuban Border Guard officials, Rubio questions planned visit by Cuban Border Guard delegation to Washington next week, Facebook takes down hundreds of fake accounts linked to the Cuban government targeting critics, A silent crisis: Miami experts discuss recent migration in South Florida at Herald townhall, Did a U.S. rapper make it rain money in Havana? Last month the independent Parliamentary Standards Commissioner found Paterson had breached the tame paid advocacy rules. 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. Hayes declined to comment. ZR Group and Mr. Rahmeh were unlawfully indicted on a number of charges, of which all but one have been dropped. As the pandemic highlighted, it is a mechanism for the enrichment of the tiny elite of business people who have an inside track to ministers and top civil servants. Erni was most recently. The leaked documents also show that Guillermo Faustino Rodrguez Lpez-Calleja, brother of Gen. Luis Alberto Rodrguez Lpez-Calleja, was appointed in 1999 as a director of Pescatlan S.A., a company incorporated by Mossack Fonseca in the British Virgin Islands in 1991 with an initial capital of $50,000. Employees are required to act honestly and ethically when dealing with business counterparts. MP and former Tory energy minister John Hayes has been paid 150,000 by oil firm BB Energy over three years. In view of the foregoing debate, were forced to return to the commercial relationship between Sonatrach and the Lebanese Ministry of Energy, and the pressure exercised by former Sonatrach CEO, Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour, to adopt ZR Energy trading company as a second intermediary besides Baha Bassatne, as a supplier in the Algerian companys name; the thing that occurred a year and a half before opening the file. Le Commerce du Levant / By Nada MAUCOURANT ATTALAH, Fouad Gemayel, 28 May 2021 19:51, Twenty-two defendants are set to appear before a criminal court on charges related to a tainted fuel case that dates back to March 2020. And the cosy dinners, the freebie trips and holidays, the football match tickets and the fat extra salaries to deliver for corporations must all go. The family controls BB Energy, a conglomerate founded in Lebanon in 1937 that buys and sells 16 million metric tons of crude and derivatives each year. 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. The internal PDVSA document said the sales would allow the partial completion of the financial scheme of advanced payments between PDVSA and Rosneft. A former Tory Party chairman told The Sunday Times, Once you pay your 3 million, you get your peerage.. Our operations in these products are global and we use our storage and logistics for blending and optimising timely deliveries to fulfil customer requirements. Peter Quinter, an expert on U.S. embargo laws and former head of the International Law section of the Florida Bar Association, said the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba generally bars a company with a U.S. presence from doing business with Cuba directly or indirectly through an offshore branch, for example. 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