Reported by: JOSHUA GOODMAN

 For years, as the U.S. has ramped up pressure on Venezuela’s socialist government, dozens of allegedly corrupt insiders have raced through the U.S. criminal justice system, cutting plea bargains to avoid lengthy prison sentences and sparing prosecutors the work of having to prove their cases in court.

But not Claudia Díaz.

A former Venezuelan treasurer and nurse to late President Hugo Chavez, she is the first former high-ranking official to contest criminal charges in the U.S. 

Her jury trial, which kicked off this week in south Florida, is a critical test of federal prosecutors’ ability to hold accountable so-called Venezuelan kleptocrats for fleecing the oil rich nation. If found not guilty, her case could encourage other defendants — many of whom remain fugitives — to put forward their own fight, undermining a decadelong effort by the U.S. Justice Department to investigate crimes that largely took place overseas.

Diaz and her husband Adrian Velasquez were charged in 2020 with money laundering for allegedly taking at least $4.2 million in bribes and gifts in exchange for Diaz’s green lighting of lucrative currency transactions. The payments came from companies controlled by a Venezuelan co-defendant, fugitive media mogul Raul Gorrin, to accounts in Miami allegedly used to pay for the couple’s otherwise unexplained lavish lifestyle.

Read full report: https://apnews.com/article/business-crime-venezuela-florida-fort-lauderdale-0a4c17c8f0546d11ecf84473b35744af