This Tuesday, April 9, the former Minister of Petroleum of Venezuela, Tareck El Aissami, was arrested, according to the official announcement made by the Attorney General, Tarek William Saab.

The official also announced the capture of the former Minister of Economy and Finance and former president of the National Development Fund (Fonden) Simón Alejandro Zerpa, after “recent denunciations of at least five witnesses” interviewed by officials of the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office).

The arrests are part of the second phase of an anti-corruption operation related to a plot in the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

As you will remember, this is an investigation that “remains open,” and in which more than fifty people have been arrested and have already been charged.

The investigations linked to the Pdvsa case include crimes of non-payment, sale of crude oil without administrative guarantees or illegally, non-compliance with contracting regulations, legitimation of capital from cryptocurrencies, among others.

According to the head of the Public Ministry, the Venezuelan justice system will apply “unrelenting punishment” to former officials, whose plans were to “end the country’s economy.”

M.Pino

With information from Doble Llave

(Reference image source: @MinpiblicoVEN, X)

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In an operation carried out by the Spanish National Police in Alicante, a Venezuelan citizen was arrested as the leader of the financial apparatus of the ‘Kelvin Security’, one of the most prominent hacker groups worldwide. This group has perpetrated more than 300 high-profile attacks in the last three years, mainly targeting strategic sectors in more than 90 countries.

The primary targets of the ‘Kelvin Security’, according to authorities, include critical infrastructure and government entities. In addition to Spain, its actions have been directed to countries such as the United States, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Chile and Japan.

The group’s tactic is to exploit vulnerabilities in strategic entities to obtain access credentials and extract confidential information. They then sell this data on criminal forums on the dark web, a part of the internet that allows users to hide their identity and location.

The Venezuelan man arrested faces charges of membership in a criminal organization, disclosure of secrets, computer damage and money laundering. He is considered to be the main person responsible for laundering the money obtained from the hacktivist group’s criminal activities, and operated mainly through the exchange of cryptocurrencies.

The investigation began two years ago, following sophisticated cyber-attacks on the computer systems of the municipalities of Getafe and Camas in Spain. Cyber-investigation experts linked the attacks to the ‘Kelvin Security’ group, which operated clandestine cybercrime forums on the dark web.

The group exploited vulnerabilities in websites, software and information storage services to massively extract sensitive data from institutions and entities in strategic sectors around the world. The last known attack took place in November 2023, when they managed to exfiltrate a database with confidential information of more than 85,000 customers of an energy company.

K. Tovar

Source: Bancaynegocios

(Reference image source: Kevin Ku, Unsplash)

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La entrada Venezuelan arrested in Spain for cybercrimes apareció primero en Bitfinance.