Washington – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified fifteen aircraft as blocked property of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13884, which blocks the property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela.
Several PdVSA aircraft have been used to transport senior members of the former Maduro regime. In late summer 2019, Venezuelan Oil Minister Manuel Salvador Quevedo Fernandez, who is also a Specially Designated National, attended an OPEC meeting in the United Arab Emirates and utilized the PdVSA aircraft Falcon 200EX (YV3360). Falcon 200EX (YV3360) also was used throughout 2019 to transport senior members of the former Maduro regime in a continuation of the former Maduro regime’s misappropriation of PdVSA assets. In 2018, individuals tied to the senior levels of the former Maduro regime traveled aboard PdVSA Dassault Falcon 900EX (YV2486).
Additionally, several of these aircraft have been operated in an unsafe and unprofessional manner in proximity to U.S. military aircraft, while in international air space. In the winter of 2019, PdVSA Learjet 45 (YV2734) flew in close proximity to a U.S. military aircraft over the Caribbean Sea. In the spring of 2019, during a joint operation conducted by PdVSA and the Venezuelan Integrated Air Command, PdVSA’s Learjet 45XR (YV2567) attempted to interfere with a U.S. military aircraft in the northern Caribbean Sea.
The following aircraft are property in which PdVSA has an interest.
- YV3360, Make & Model: Dassault Falcon 200EX
- YV2040, Make & Model: Dassault Falcon 900B
- YV2726, Make & Model: Dassault Falcon 900
- YV2485, Make & Model: Dassault Falcon 900EX
- YV2486, Make & Model: Dassault Falcon 900EX
- YV2565, Make & Model: Bombardier Learjet 45
- YV2567, Make & Model: Bombardier Learjet 45
- YV1118, Make & Model: Bombardier Learjet 45
- YV2734, Make & Model: Bombardier Learjet 45
- YV2716, Make & Model: Bombardier Learjet 45
- YV2738, Make & Model: Bombardier Learjet 45
- YV2739, Make & Model: Bombardier Learjet 45
- YV2763, Make & Model: Beech 1900D
- YV2762, Make & Model: Beech 1900D
- YV2869, Make & Model: Beech 1900D
OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons.
Identifying information on the individual and entities identified today.
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