WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2019) A Venezuelan energy executive has hired Rudy Giuliani - US President Donald Trump's personal lawyer - to fend off accusations of money laundering and bribery he faces in the United States, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday citing unnamed sources.
The article identified Giuliani as one of several lawyers representing Alejandro Betancourt Lopez in Washington.
The lawyers met with the US Justice Department's criminal division chief and government attorneys to argue that Lopez should not face criminal charges in the $1.2 billion money-laundering case filed in Florida last year, the report said.
The criminal complaint alleges that top officials of the Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA, business leaders and bankers conspired to steal money from the company and then laundered the funds via Miami real estate purchases and other investment schemes.
The report said Betancourt was not one of the eight men charged in the case, but was nevertheless referred to in the criminal complaint as an "uncharged co-conspirator."
In response to the report, Giuliani wrote in a statement, "This is attorney-client privilege so I will withstand whatever malicious lies or spin you put on it."
Attorney Jon Sale, who is also named as representing Betancourt, was quoted in the report as saying that his client denies any wrongdoing, but Sale declined to comment on his client's relationship with Giuliani.
Giuliani's representation of Betancourt is a striking example of how he has continued to offer his services to foreign clients with interests before the US government while working on behalf of the president, the report said.
Giuliani is a key figure in the impeachment inquiry of Trump, who is suspected of abusing the power of office by trying to exert pressure on Ukraine via Giuliani to undertake an investigation into possible corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Trump has said that he did not engage in a quid pro quo in his dealings with Ukraine. In addition, Trump has characterized the impeachment inquiry as another political witch hunt by Democrats to reverse the results of the 2016 presidential election.� �
