In 2003, for example, BB Naft agreed to guarantee and meet the obligations of a loan obtained by BB Energy (Asia) Pte Ltd. from the Standard Chartered Bank of Singapore. As the pandemic highlighted, it is a mechanism for the enrichment of the tiny elite of business people who have an inside track to ministers and top civil servants. This raised many questions about the timing, and the reasons for neglecting it all these past years. Glencore has installed independent legal monitors to oversee its internal conduct as part of an agreement with the US government, marking a key milestone in the Swiss-based commodities house's . BBE maintains . We are committed to acting as a model corporate citizen at all times and benefitting the local communities in which we operate. A convoluted email by a Cuban lawyer for Tecnica Hidraulica, registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), showed all its shares were held by Cubas Tcnica Hidrulica, S.A. Many of the Mossack Fonseca emails and documents show the relationship between BB Naft and the BB Energy group through the years. At times, however, the shield of anonymity over Cuban companies is not very effective. The Committee on Standards suggested Paterson should just be suspended from the Commons for 30 days. After they didn't show up for questioning, reports suggested Hleiss and Rahme were being protected by Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh. Tory MP Owen Paterson announced his resignation last week following revelations of his shameless lobbying for big businesses. The new certificates, for 800 shares, were to be issued in the names of 10 members of the Bassatne family, including 160 shares for Riad Bassatne. Boris Johnson initially backed Paterson. The PDVSA source said that Rosneft credited PDVSA the amount, minus an undisclosed fee, and then started talks with BB Energy to recover the sum it advanced PDVSA. Sonatrach has been involved in at least two major corruption cases in the past decade, both of which involved the payment of bribes to company employees and officials. Read about our approach to external linking. The subsidiary subcontracted the deal to two private companies BB Energy, owned by the Bassatne family, and, beginning in 2017, Dubai-based ZR Energy DMCC, owned by Ibrahim Zaouk. Its got through to him that there is a chance to inflict real blows on the Tories. One of the more intriguing schemes mentioned in the documents puts Cuba at the heart of a deal to sell Russian oil to Latin America through a company registered in Panama by the Bassatne family. ZR Group Holding SAL and ZR Energy DMCC are two separate corporate entities. At BB Energy, we are constantly evolving in order to meet new challenges, while developing our personnel to ensure a competitive edge. Ltd., after several rounds of negotiations with a number of companies, the official added. Multimillionaire donors seem almost guaranteed a peerage, according to a report by the Open Democracy thinktank and the Times newspaper. Reports obtained by LOGI show that tests of one batch of fuel showed it could contain chemical waste. The quality of the fuel was so bad that it caused material damage to turbines at both the Jiyeh and Zouk power plants. Few traders had room to receive physical barrels at Cushing. Reliance has said that in September 2012 it signed a 15-year deal to purchase up to 400,000 barrels a day of heavy crude from PDVSA. The Sunday Times newspaper has revealed a phone call on 9 April last year between Paterson and the Tory peer Lord Bethell, who was the minister responsible for handing out contracts. The Cuban government used the Panama law firm involved in the Panama Papers to create a string of companies in offshore financial havens that allowed it to sidestep the U.S. embargo in its commercial operations. We made a separate appeal to examine the contract with Sonatrach, but it was rejected. John Hayes works for BB Energy as a strategic adviser, Politicians accused of being worryingly cosy with oil and gas firms as its revealed almost one in ten Tory peers has financial stake in the sector. Following the publication of Reuters report on Thursday, Reliance said in its statement that it had purchased Venezuelan crude oil from Rosneft long before the imposition of U.S. sanctions on PDVSA in January, as the Russian company received oil in return for a reduction in Venezuelas debt. While former energy ministers who signed and renewed the contract have been questioned, they are not currently at the center of criminal investigations. A lawyer for Panamericana, Katiuska Peado Moreno, and a former commercial attach at the Cuban embassy in London, Alejandro Gutirrez Madrigal, are listed as the beneficiaries of shares in Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd. worth $50,000. Little is known inside the island about the Cuban governments companies abroad, but Havana economist Omar Everleny wrote in the early 2000s that there were more than 100 entities with the participation of Cuban capital, founded as mixed [state-private] companies or as branches of companies based on the island operating abroad in areas such as construction, agriculture, food, medicine, mining, finance and science., Everleny, recently fired from the University of Havanas Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy, noted the paradox that a country that lacks the capital for its own development has invested in other countries. The motive, he speculated, is the U.S. embargo that forced the establishment of a network of companies around the world to warehouse and market products from the sea, among them lobsters and shrimp., Today the export of products from the fishing industry is carried out through those companies, he said, adding that Cuban officials also created an international network of companies to warehouse and sell the famous Cuban cigars.. There have been unconfirmed reports that Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Calleja divorced Deborah Castro Espin in recent years, but he remains in charge of Grupo de Administracin Empresarial S.A., (GAESA) and the governments signature port of Mariel development project. This article was published in LOGI's May 2020 newsletter in partnership with Kulluna Irada. They have addresses in the Miramar and Old Havana neighborhoods of the Cuban capital. They include Petrobras, Vitol, and Glencore Limited. The Lebanese National News Agency announced that the attorney-general of Mount Lebanon, Ghada Aoun, issued arrest warrants against 17 people working in the fuel sector because of import irregularities. In one transaction, an executive from Rosnefts Geneva trading unit said PDVSA had given its approval for Rosneft to collect payment from trading firm BB Energy for the purchase of 525,000 barrels of fuel oil loaded on Jan. 3, according to an offer letter. The news website Diario de Cuba has identified the director of foreign investments at the Foreign Trade Ministry, Dborah Rivas Saavedra, as another of the directors of Racuza, Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd and Caribbean Sugar Trader. Miramar Playa. BB Energy has trading hubs in the UAE, the U.K., the US, and Singapore. Owen Patersonthe MP who lobbied for private companies in the pandemic (Picture: Flickr/ NFU Pics). The long list of companies linked to the Cuban government or active in Cuba also includes Sanford Management Financial Ltd.; Commercial Mercadu S.A. (linked to Panamericana); Amadis Compaa Naviera S.A.; Seagull and Seafoods, S.A.; Mavis Group S.A.; Octagon Industria Ltd; Travelnet; and Venus Associates Inc., among others. The BVI company was dissolved in 2015. Forgery, using counterfeit documents, bribery, fraud and professional misconduct these are the charges brought against 22 people and entities following a pretrial investigation into a case of. Copyright 2023 BB Energy. El Nuevo Herald identified at least 25 companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, Panama and the Bahamas and linked to Cuba. Edif. Successive . From the beginning of the pandemic, Labour leader Keir Starmer spent nearly all his time agreeing with Boris Johnson in a show of national unity. BB Naft shareholder Wael Bassatne told El Nuevo Herald that his company did not violate the U.S. embargo because it is not registered and does no business in the United States. Public debt could rise to 289% of GDP by the end of the century if climate change is left unchecked, it said. And most trade union leaders went down the same path. Sir John's earnings put him among the most well paid MPs. Hayes declined to comment. At parliament we will try to make sure that high level responsibility is also explored - including all the ministers who stayed silent over the years., Fuel import scandal shows why transparency matters. However, Reuters was unable to independently verify if the agreement was implemented and remains in force. Reliance said in its statement its purchases of Venezuelan oil from Rosneft do not lead to any payments to PDVSA. Link to this Report. +44 2079380500 Company BB Energy Joey Nanaasare Current Workplace Joey Nanaasare has been working as a Business Development at BB Energy for 4 years. The internal PDVSA document reviewed by Reuters showed the Venezuelan state oil firm asked Reliance to pay for oil sales under the long-term contract via Rosneft Trading SA, the Geneva-based trading unit of the Russian oil giant. A letter sent to the Panamanian law firm in 1997 requested assistance organizing a fishing operation in the Turks and Caicos Islands with Cuban-flagged fishing boats.. Yacoubian said that high-level responsibility for the secret contract with Sonatrach and years of faulty fuel imports should be explored. Last month he and other Tory MPs called for fracking to resume. It held all the shares of Euro Foods Ltd., which was registered in the Bahamas and in turn represented ALIMPORT. My journey to journalism: Elodie TotoElodie Toto of BBC Afrique tells the story of what inspired her to become a journalist, and takes us on a journey from the suburbs of Paris to Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Parliament is an unrepresentative, unaccountable front that covers for the real relations of power. Le Commerce du Levant / By Nada MAUCOURANT ATTALAH, Fouad Gemayel, 28 May 2021 19:51, Twenty-two defendants are set to appear before a criminal court on charges related to a tainted fuel case that dates back to March 2020. Some 22 of the biggest donors have gained a seat in the House of Lords in the past 11 years. Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). 310. Panama Papers: Secret buyer seals deal for South Beach condo, U.S. investigated energy weapon, even aliens, but Havana Syndrome origin still unclear, Amid controversy, Biden administration shortens visit by Cuban Border Guard officials, Rubio questions planned visit by Cuban Border Guard delegation to Washington next week, Facebook takes down hundreds of fake accounts linked to the Cuban government targeting critics, A silent crisis: Miami experts discuss recent migration in South Florida at Herald townhall, Did a U.S. rapper make it rain money in Havana? Records of a meeting in Dubai in March of 2011 reflect a decision to significantly reduce the capital of BB Naft, held by BB Energy Holdings NV., from $8 million to $1.050 million. MPs are elected to provide a voice for their constituents in Westminster, but when they also have lucrative side-jobs for private companies it raises questions over whose interests they are really serving, said Alex Runswick, senior advocacy manager at Transparency International UK. The biggest donor is Aquind, . Billions of dollars have been siphoned off annually into political largesse and party war chests. Aguilar also has served as a deputy in the legislative National Assembly. The need for transparency in that case is even more pressing given the fact that the director of the Oil Installations, Sarkis Hleiss, is at the center of investigations into the fuel import scandal. The difference: The name of the BVI firm has no Spanish accents, the Cuban companys name does. MP and former Tory energy minister John Hayes has been paid 150,000 by oil firm BB Energy over three years. Landlords are eligible for up 5,000 to cover two thirds of energy efficiency work. One of the markets may have been Ecuador. The Lincolnshire MP recently criticised the governments plan to bring forward a ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars, saying that a delay would allow fossil fuels to become even cleaner. 2. Last month he and. Baha Bassatne remained the sole Sonatrach broker until Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour was appointed general manager of the company and imposed another intermediary. Somebody did and bedlam ensued. The documents reveal previously unknown details about the Cuban governments economic maneuvers abroad and the foreign companies that do business with Havana as some of the firms tried to hide Cubas hand in business deals to skirt the U.S. embargo. And the case of Sabradell S.A., headed by Panamericana director Jos L. Fernndez de Cosso Domnguez for a time and dissolved in 2008. Swiss lawyer Albert-Louis Dupont-Willemin appears as a director of several of the Cuban companies, among them Miramar Investment Corporation Ltd. and Pescatlan S.A. Above all, the government remains ahead in the opinion polls even though it presides over one of the worst death rates in the world. One of the directors of both Curtdale and Ardpoint starting in 2011 was Hernn Aguilar Parra, executive director of Grupo Empresarial de Tabaco de Cuba, known as TABACUBA, the governments tobacco monopoly. The company opened an office in Cuba, he explained, because he has been a resident of Havana like his wife and three children, all of them born in Cuba and Cuban citizens. Formed in the 1960s, the group's activities span six continents. Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen in Caracas, Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Julia Payne in London; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Simon Webb,David Gaffen and Marguerita Choy. Image: Cables of the electric generators in the Lebanese capital BeirutCredit: ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images, except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa. BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Lebanon: A web of corruption Lebanon: A web of corruption As Lebanon endures worsening blackouts and fuel shortages, BBC Arabic investigates the. Venezuelas oil ministry, its information ministry - which handles media for the government - and PDVSA did not respond to questions. Global Policy Forum, a non-government agency that monitors the work of the United Nations, also included BB Energy in a list of beneficiaries of the so-called oil bribes distributed by Saddam Hussein to recruit international support for weakening U.N. and other economic sanctions against Iraq. The Public Prosecution in Mount Lebanon has triggered a heavy-caliber scandal, by arresting two dealers who were supposed to supply the Lebanese Electricity Company with Algerian fuel used in generating electricity. The Web page of the Cuba-Lebanon Businessmens Council lists a Riad Bassatne as a member of its board of directors and describes him as president of BB Naft Trading and member of the board of directors of BB Energy., Wael Bassatne nevertheless insisted that there are no commercial or financial relations between BB Naft Trading S.A. and the BB Energy Group. He added that BB Nafts activities in Cuba included the sale of spare parts and agricultural machinery.. BB Energy is not known to be involved in fracking but says that it sells oil around the world and is one of the largest traders in the Mediterranean. Moreover, he denied any relationship with the ZR Energy trading company. That the committee review and comment on proposed and ongoing work to reduce fuel poverty. Independent MP Paula Yacoubian told LOGI that she believed Lebanese and Algerian mafias were involved in a corruption scheme tied to the fuel imports. But the stench of corruption was too much. 2022 LOrient-Le Jour All rights reserved. We fully anticipate that the final charge will also be dismissed, he said. The company said it saved Ghana over $2.8million when it sold the crude to the firm at a discount of $2 instead of the normal $5 a barrel. In the last seven years every Tory party treasurer has given at least 3 million and been offered a seat in the House of Lords. Khalid Mahmood (Labour) has committed up to 15 hours a month advising the Policy Exchange think tank on issues including extremism. The government was forced to go back on itself and announced there would be a vote on Patersons suspension. They escaped after senior adviser Dominic Cummings showed there was one law for the rich and another for the rest. 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