Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. ("PDVSA") was the Venezuelan state-owned and state-controlled oil company. PDVSA Services, Inc. ("PSI") was a wholly-owned procurement subsidiary of PDVSA based in Houston, Texas.
Ivan Alexis Guedez, a U.S. citizen and resident of Texas, was employed by PDVSA from around 2006 to 2011. During that time, Guedez worked in a variety of procurement positions, including as the purchasing manager for PSI.
According the Information filed in this case, from 2009 to 2013, Guedez was part of a conspiracy with several others to pay bribes to officials at PDVSA, including Guedez, in order to obtain improper advantage for an undisclosed company, purportedly a Miami-based supplier of industrial equipment. The conspiracy operated through PDVSA's purchase contracts with the company, and the conspirators agreed that 3% of every payment made by PDVSA to the company would be split as bribe payments among them.
On October 12, 2018, the DOJ filed a single count Information in the Southern District of Texas against Guedez alleging conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to a DOJ press release on October 30, 2018, Guedez agreed to plead guilty to the charge, but the details of the plea agreement are unknown because it remains under seal. On February 21, 2021, the court ordered Guedez to forfeit $978,339.50. On May 6, 2021, the court sentenced Guedez to 18 months in prison to be followed by 2 years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a fine of $20,000 plus a mandatory assessment of $100.
