Miami judge blasts Venezuela’s top airline for ‘fraud’
Two Venezuelan businessmen once convicted in the US as unregistered agents of the late Hugo Chavez have scored a major victory in a Miami courtroom in a bitter fight for control of the South American country’s largest private airline. While Avior Airlines has largely been grounded by US sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, the investors hope to recover at least some of its assets, including a regional airline in neighboring Colombia. A Miami circuit judge this week rejected a suit by Jorge Añez that alleged his Florida-based partners had overcharged Avior for parts and services. Judge Michael Hanzman found that Añez had no authority to represent Avior, saying there was overwhelming evidence he cooked the company’s books and formed an “illegitimate board of friendlies” to seize the struggling airline. Ruling on the previously unreported lawsuit, he found that Añez had lied in testimony and tried to use the US legal system to perpetrate “fraud.” “Mr. Añez’s claim of 100% ownership of Avior is a complete fabrication, which reeks of afterthought and was concocted only after ......a dispute over the operations of Avior,” the judge wrote. The partner Añez tried to force out is an investment group that includes Carlos Kauffmann and Moises Maionica. Both men were sentenced in 2008 to more than a year in US federal prison for their role in a political scandal involving a suitcase full of $800,000 in cash sent to Argentina aboard a Venezuelan government plane. Story has more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2020-11-09/unaligned/miami-judge-blasts-venezuela2019s-top-airline-for-2018fraud2019
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Miami judge blasts Venezuela’s top airline for ‘fraud’
Two Venezuelan businessmen once convicted in the US as unregistered agents of the late Hugo Chavez have scored a major victory in a Miami courtroom in a bitter fight for control of the South American country’s largest private airline. While Avior Airlines has largely been grounded by US sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, the investors hope to recover at least some of its assets, including a regional airline in neighboring Colombia. A Miami circuit judge this week rejected a suit by Jorge Añez that alleged his Florida-based partners had overcharged Avior for parts and services. Judge Michael Hanzman found that Añez had no authority to represent Avior, saying there was overwhelming evidence he cooked the company’s books and formed an “illegitimate board of friendlies” to seize the struggling airline. Ruling on the previously unreported lawsuit, he found that Añez had lied in testimony and tried to use the US legal system to perpetrate “fraud.” “Mr. Añez’s claim of 100% ownership of Avior is a complete fabrication, which reeks of afterthought and was concocted only after ......a dispute over the operations of Avior,” the judge wrote. The partner Añez tried to force out is an investment group that includes Carlos Kauffmann and Moises Maionica. Both men were sentenced in 2008 to more than a year in US federal prison for their role in a political scandal involving a suitcase full of $800,000 in cash sent to Argentina aboard a Venezuelan government plane. Story has more.<br/>
