Francisco Convit Guruceaga
Francisco Convit Guruceaga, a member of Derwick Associates and partner of Alejandro Betancourt (popularly known as the bolichicos), escaped from SEBIN in the early hours of Wednesday.
Sources from Cuentas Claras Digital confirmed the information reported by journalist David Placer: Convit fled alongside other still unidentified detainees. In the last few hours, several raids have been conducted at the homes of relatives and associates. It has been reported that Antonio E. Álvarez Cisneros, known as Potro Álvarez, president of the National Institute of Hippodromes, was detained as part of the interrogations carried out by SEBIN.
Convit is believed to be outside the country and negotiating with US authorities, given the sensitive information he possesses as he was one of the main financial operators of the regime until February of this year. Recently, he had increased his involvement in businesses related to the sale of oil from Pdvsa, even managing his own fleet of ships used to evade sanctions. Convit maintained direct relationships with high-ranking officials of the regime, making him privy to the coordinates of the corruption network that has plundered the country. Apart from being part of this network, he knows all its current players.
Convit was arrested on direct orders from Nicolás Maduro since the end of February, following a public altercation with Miguel Dager, a partner of singer Omar Enrique, at a well-known paddle club in eastern Caracas.
During the subsequent raid on Convit’s bunker-like residence, SEBIN officials reportedly found compromising information on his cellphone, cash in dollars and euros, and cryptocurrency account passwords.
After six months of Convit’s detention, similar to what happened with brothers Santiago and Ricardo Morón, the judicial status of the case remained unknown. Sources confirm that the arrest order came directly from Nicolás Maduro.
Francisco Convit has been evading US justice since 2018 due to a case known as Money Flight or Capital Flight, where he acted as a frontman for Nicolás Maduro’s stepsons, Walter, Yoswal and Yosser Gavidia Flores. The US court identified Convit as one of the main players in a network that conducted illicit multimillion-dollar transactions exploiting the currency exchange differential resulting from PDVSA’s income.