Bernardo Arosio Hobaica is not an amateur businessman; he’s the perfect prototype of a contractor who transformed friendships and political favors into million-dollar contracts, luxury properties, and concessions that seemed custom-made for him. The son of engineer Jhon Arosio Maal, a senior executive of Grupo Sambil and founder of ATB Constructores, he entered the family real estate business alongside his brother Tadeo Arosio, building over 500 apartments and boutique hotels in prime locations. This façade was enough for him, with the right connections, to leap from architectural plans to the Orinoco Oil Belt.
His social life opened the door. His wife, Hannelly Quintero, formed a close friendship with Rudy Amer de El Aissami, the wife of then Minister of Oil Tareck El Aissami, who is now imprisoned for corruption. This domestic relationship gave rise to a business that had nothing to do with engineering or construction: the operation of dollarized gas stations under the brand Pit Stop, alongside other allies from El Aissami’s circle. A steady cash flow and huge profit margins were sustained at the cost of labor exploitation allegations: employees worked 14-hour shifts with no benefits, under veiled threats of dismissal if they complained.
Bernardo Arosio and his wife, Hannelly Quintero
El Aissami’s favor was not limited to gasoline. In 2021, Arosio burst into the oil sector as the main contractor in Petro San Félix, where he coordinated recovery and maintenance work on upgrading plants. Lacking technical experience, he relied on a payment scheme in kind: PDVSA delivered crude oil shipments to POES International LTD —a consultancy registered in the UK— in exchange for purported services. The real intermediary was Prodata Energy, registered in Arosio’s name and used to channel gas exports to Colombia, involving the Chilean Jorge Jara Salas. Both companies shared offices on the 14th floor of Torre BOD (now Banco Nacional de Crédito) in La Castellana, Caracas, separated by a makeshift partition to feign independence.
This same business duo monopolized part of the logistics for the binational gas pipeline Antonio Ricaurte, which connects Maracaibo with the La Guajira peninsula in Colombia. They secured contracts with the political backing of El Aissami and operators at the state-run PDVSA Gas, who facilitated permits and exclusivities. The gas business extended to contracts with mixed companies such as Petromonagas, Petrocedeño, and Sinovensa, all with a majority stake from PDVSA.
Simultaneously, Arosio expanded his real estate footprint into areas where the law should be strict: Los Roques. He and his brother Tadeo are accused of owning one of the eight luxury constructions built mere meters from the runway of Gran Roque, right in a protected area of the National Park. A report by Armando.info about this enclave describes how environmental permits were granted in record time to a small group of businessmen with direct ties to power, including Arosio, who obtained the land and licenses without public bidding.
ATB Constructores, his flagship company, was not free from scandals. Legal files reveal payments to municipal officials in Baruta —through POES International— to obtain occupancy permits, cadastral certificates, and urban variables between 2018 and 2022. The goal was to unblock projects like Torre 908 and other high-profile real estate developments in eastern Caracas.
Meanwhile, his personal life fueled tabloid press. Past relationships with figures like Osmariel Villalobos and connections to Miss Venezuela reinforced his image as a “high-flying businessman” within Caracas’s jet set. His wife’s friendship with Rudy Amer de El Aissami was both the key to oil contracts and a shield that kept him safe while his benefactor’s corruption network operated unimpeded.
This shield shattered in March 2023, when the megacase of PDVSA-Cripto erupted. Detained alongside Alejandro Arroyo and Jesús Salazar, Arosio was accused of participating in a scheme that resulted in losses exceeding 13.3 billion dollars to PDVSA during El Aissami’s management. Investigators documented how POES International received crude shipments as payment and how Prodata Energy operated export contracts to Colombia that evaded international sanctions.
In April 2024, the portal Cuentas Claras Digital revealed that Arosio, Arroyo, and Salazar were granted house arrest after turning in Tareck El Aissami. Today he is under house arrest, far from the Pit Stop gas stations, the offices in Torre BOD, and the private beaches of Los Roques, but with a fortune whose origins are marked by political favors, opaque contracts, and a systematic use of the state as personal loot.
The story of Bernardo Arosio is not one of a visionary entrepreneur, but rather the tale of an operator who turned personal relationships—complete with names and surnames—into the raw material for a private empire financed by public funds.
@lombardoven Hannelly Quintero discovered that her husband, Bernardo Arosio Hobaica, used his medical permits to meet with Osmariel Villalobos at a clinic in El Ávila. In the past, Arosio had also dated Gaby Espino #fyp #venezuela ♬ Perro Mujeriego – Nacho