A report by Venezuelan congressional commission has accused state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) of financial wrong doing during the 2004-14 period when current United Nations’ envoy Rafael Ramirez was managing affairs.
The amount of funds claimed to have gone missing is around $11bn.
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Comptroller commission president Freddy Guevara told Reuters: "It is more than the (annual) budget of five Central American countries."
Around 95% of the country’s export revenues are from PDVSA, which manages large oil reserves.
The news agency reported PDVSA as saying that in case a proposed bond swap of $5.3bn does not go through it ‘could be difficult’ to pay large debt commitments.
The investigation carried out by Venezuelan congressional commission focuses on 11 cases, which range from scandals in an Andorran bank and PDVSA pension funds to alleged overpricing in acquiring oil equipment.
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By GlobalDataAccusations are based in part on documents from the company's auditor KPMG, as well as foreign investigations.
Based on the report, it was found that interviews conducted with a representative of KPMG showed the company had informed PDVSA's auditing committee of ‘frauds’.
The US Justice Department said that an investigation is going on into bribery at PDVSA.
Bloomberg reported that PDVSA is the primary foreign oil supplier to the US Gulf Coast region and a potential default by the company may cause trouble for refineries there.
