Venezuela Information Office's connections
By Aleksander Boyd
London 22.03.05 | According to documents received from the Foreign Agents Registration Unit (FARA) on February 27 2.004 the Venezuelan Information Office, LLC is owned by VIO Investments, CORP, a corporation under the laws of the State of Florida (Document #P04000032683, EIN 20-0747684), incorporated by Isaura Gilmond and Evelio Gilmond, 1301 St. Tropez Circle #2104, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33326 [1]. On March 18 2004 Isaura Gilmond filled with the FARA a form as VIO's “administrative assistant” that earned her a $3.500/month salary. Florida's Corporations Division however has different information pertaining to the registered agent of the VIO, this being MILLENNIUM-NET-CORPORATION, which is also a Florida based corporation incorporated by Evelio Gilmond. The registered officers of MILLENNIUM are Gilmond, Rogelio Salges and Carlos Villalonga [2]. Rogelio Salges' name is associated to 12 other corporations of Florida among which BRICKELL OIL & METALS, INC (BRIOM) [3]. Evelio Gilmond, together with Rogelio Salges and Eugenio Lascurain, also appear in the officers/directors section of the United Mortgage Bankers [4] that is linked in turn to a real state venture called United Team [5].
Thus we see how the husband (Evelio Gilmond) of a Venezuelan government employee (Isaura Gilmond) is associated to a company that claims to have among its clients PDVSA and BITOR. Do bear with me. BRIOM's "about us" page cites the following [6]:
Rogelio Salges founded Brickell Oil & Metals Inc (BRIOM) in 1996 in Florida. It is a business development consulting-marketing and trading firm for the petroleum, mining-metal sector.
Furthermore its client list sports two stately owned energy industries of Venezuela, namely PDVSA and BITOR [7]. The website of United Team has deep links to BRIOM [8*] that are not visible in the home page. BRIOM also claims to be associated to MARTIN GROUP [9*] which is quoted in Yahoo Finance as [10]:
Martin Resource Management wants to push around your petroleum products. The company's flagship operation, 58%-owned Martin Midstream Partners, offers transportation, storage, marketing, and logistics management services for petroleum products, including sulfur, sulfur derivatives, fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gas, asphalt and other bulk tank liquids, primarily in the southern US. Martin Resource also manufactures and markets fertilizer and other processed sulfur products. Through its Midstream Fuel Service subsidiary, the company offers inland marine supply and offshore support services. Martin Resource holds stakes in Ican Energy, an LPG distributor, and CF Martin Sulphur, a sulfur gathering company.
A Vcrisis source called recently MARTIN GROUP's office in Kilgore Texas to enquire about their existing commercial relationship with BRIOM and it was admitted that indeed they do have business with BRIOM.
The aforesaid begs for a number of questions. Firstly, when did the relationship between BRIOM and PDVSA started? Secondly, when did Isaura Gilmond became an employee of the Venezuela Information Office? Thirdly, is the BRIOM relationship with BITOR and PDVSA product of coincidence or is it a clear cut example of influence peddling?
*The webmaster of UnitedTeam.com removed the information quoted. In order to see the contents properly in the pages provided right click on the mouse and press "select all".
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