A sculpture outside the state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) in Caracas on February 26, 2025. According to U.S. prosecutors in Miami, a money-laundering conspiracy began in late 2014 when Venezuelan businessmen set up a shell company to make a sham loan to PDVSA.
AFP via Getty Images
Pedro Binaggia spent eight years as a confidential informant for U.S. federal agents, helping build a massive money-laundering case tied to Venezuela’s state oil company. Now living in Europe with his career destroyed, he says the government never delivered on promises of compensation and green cards for his family.
FULL STORY: Informant: I endured threats to expose Venezuelan fraud, but U.S. betrayed me
Here are key takeaways:
- Binaggia, a former Venezuelan banking lawyer, walked into Homeland Security Investigations’ South Florida office in 2016 and secretly recorded about 100 meetings with suspected financial criminals. He turned over roughly $45.6 million in tainted funds and helped build “Operation Money Flight,” a $1.2 billion foreign corruption case filed in 2018.
- Six of the 12 defendants have pleaded guilty and forfeited about $90 million in embezzled funds from Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. Six others remain fugitives, including Globovisión network owner Raúl Gorrín and the suspected ringleader, Francisco Convit Guruceaga.
- Binaggia says federal agents and prosecutors repeatedly assured him and his family he would receive compensation from recovered funds and permanent U.S. residency, but never delivered. His visa expired in 2024, forcing him and his family to leave Weston for Europe.
- Prosecutor Frank Maderal wrote in 2018 that Binaggia was never a subject or target of any investigation, but later prosecutors Kurt Lunkenheimer and Paul Hayden shifted course in 2023, asking him to sign a Kastigar letter offering only limited immunity — which he refused.
- Whistleblower attorney Stephen Kohn warned the Justice Department risks losing critical insiders for complex corruption cases if it doesn’t compensate them fairly, noting that large awards are the single most important factor in motivating others to report crimes.
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