U.S. Seizes Venezuelan President’s Plane Citing Sanction Violations
HuffPost
U.S. officials allege that the aircraft was illegally purchased using a shell company. Its seizure comes amid ongoing credibility concerns about Nicholas Maduro's reelection.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has seized a plane used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that officials say was illegally purchased through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States, citing violations of sanctions and export control laws.
The Dassault Falcon 900EX was seized in the Dominican Republic and transferred to the custody of federal officials in Florida, the Justice Department said Monday.
U.S. officials say associates of the Venezuelan leader used a Caribbean-based shell company to hide their involvement in the purchase of the plane, valued at the time at $13 million, from a company in Florida. The plane was exported from the U.S. to Venezuela, through the Caribbean, in April 2023 in a transaction meant to circumvent an executive order that bars U.S. persons from business transactions with the Maduro regime.
The plane, registered to San Marino, was widely used by Maduro for foreign travel, including in a trips earlier this year to Guyana and Cuba.
“Let this seizure send a clear message: aircraft illegally acquired from the United States for the benefit of sanctioned Venezuelan officials cannot just fly off into the sunset,” Matthew Axelrod, an assistant secretary for export enforcement in the Commerce Department, said in a statement.
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