In the less visible corridors of Venezuelan power —where contracts go unannounced and decisions are made away from the microphones— the name Rosa Gisela Olivis Peña de Gray appears with unsettling regularity. Not as a public figure or political spokesperson, but as a legal and business cog in a network that has transformed proximity to the state into profitable ventures, and those ventures into wealth stored abroad.
Married to Australian businessman Clifford Ross Gray, Olivis has built over the years a corporate architecture that spans Venezuela, Panama, the United States, and Spain. Her public profile often presents her as the president of the Huellas de Bondad foundation, an NGO officially dedicated to social work. However, this facade coexists with a much more complex commercial web.
In Panama, she appears as a director of several companies, including Latimex Corporation S.A., JM Mercantil Supply Inc., and Corporation Visloy S.A., firms that share common patterns with other structures linked to Chavismo: limited visible commercial activity, shared addresses, and connections with state contractors in Venezuela. In Venezuela, Olivis co-founded Corporación Graysam C.A., which received official authorization to import and distribute uniforms, industrial clothing, and machinery, with a particular emphasis on security and defense agencies.
Graysam did not operate in isolation. Around it exists a core group of partners and frontmen whose names reappear across different corporate identities: Yanori Bernal Vargas, Ámbar Yohana Quiroga Mata, Roda Saab Ganam, and Félix Ramón Hernández, among others. Together they are listed in companies like Representaciones Felther, Lanzallamas 12 R.L., Inversiones Villaber, and Venservice, all beneficiaries of contracts with public entities including INCE Militar, IPSFA, Bolipuertos, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pro-government municipalities, and state social programs.
The pattern repeats: companies with short histories, uncompetitive bids, or direct assignments, and a constant flow of public resources with minimal oversight. This model is well-known within the Bolivarian ecosystem, where political loyalty often outweighs technical expertise.
Alongside this business expansion, Olivis began moving capital out of Venezuela. In 2014, she acquired a high-end penthouse in Madrid’s Salamanca neighborhood for about 455,000 euros, a transaction conducted through a bank account in Miami. This was not an isolated incident: individuals close to her purchased other properties in the same building through companies registered in Panama and Barbados, replicating common real estate investment schemes to safeguard funds of sensitive origin.
Rosa Olivis’s story is also intertwined with that of Samantha Gray Quintero, who transitioned from a local political aspirant in Chacao to a key player in one of Madrid’s most talked-about real estate purchases: a building valued at 47 million euros. Far from being just a mother-in-law and political daughter, Olivis and Samantha shared companies and strategies. In a 2008 interview, Samantha herself acknowledged that it was Olivis who introduced her to Joseph Gray, her husband. Since that time, both have appeared as partners in at least four companies. Olivis has publicly described her as a daughter, friend, and confidant.
The circle has not been without controversies. Opposition sources have linked Olivis to General Giuseppe Yoffreda Yorio, a former high-ranking official at Corpovex, in alleged irregular schemes that included using networks to recruit young people for unclear purposes. Although these accusations have not been proven in court, their recurrence in reports and leaks reflects the level of opacity surrounding the group.
Adding to this is her alleged indirect involvement in the structure of Turpial Airlines, a Venezuelan airline that allegedly capitalized on the exit of international companies to establish profitable routes via third countries like Curacao, Panama, and Barbados, catering to a very specific niche: officials, allied businessmen, and power operators.
With Venezuelan nationality, access to international financial systems, and a constellation of active companies across various jurisdictions, Rosa Gisela Olivis Peña de Gray embodies a recurring profile in the economic elite of Chavismo: operators who never give speeches, rarely make headlines, but turn closeness to power into contracts, and contracts into shielded wealth abroad.
Always in the background. But almost never out of the business.