News

A South American television mogul must contend with U.S. sanctions after allegedly paying hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to two consecutive heads of Venezuela's National Treasury while controlling a lucrative string of currency exchange houses. U.S. officials claimed Tuesday that Raul Gorrin, billionaire co-owner of Caracas-based station Globovision, used dozens of intermediaries and companies, including several U.S.-registered firms, to channel proceeds from Venezuela's black-market exchange into banks in Europe and the United States. The scheme stretched back to 2008, when Gorrin secured rights to "casas de bolsa" that provided Venezuela’s government with U.S. dollars in return...