In a twist that feels like a scene from a financial espionage novel, American victims of kidnappings carried out by Colombia’s FARC are set to receive compensation with money stolen from the Venezuelan people by two of the most notorious corrupt figures of the Chavismo regime: Tareck El Aissami and Samark López Bello, both detained since 2024 in Caracas.
The once powerful Vice President and super Minister of the Chavista regime, Tareck El Aissami, together with his frontman,
Samark López Bello, are incarcerated in a maximum-security prison in Caracas for corruption-related offenses.
A federal court in New York has set critical deadlines that could transfer López’s blocked assets—accounts, bonds, and planes acquired with illicit funds from PDVSA—directly to Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves, and Thomas Howes, American contractors kidnapped by FARC in 2003.
The irony is stark: Funds diverted by allies of the Venezuelan regime could compensate victims of a narcoterrorist organization that those same officials helped to finance.
From the Colombian Jungle to Manhattan Courts
In February 2003, a Cessna 208 contracted by the DEA was shot down by FARC in the skies of Caquetá, Colombia. Three crew members—Stansell, Gonsalves, and Howes—survived and remained captive for five years until their release in 2008 during the famous Operation Jaque.
Twenty-two years later, their names resurface in an unprecedented legal case: Stansell et al. v. FARC (16-MC-00405, SDNY). Protected under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), the survivors sued and won a judgment of US$318 million against FARC in Florida in 2010.
Since the demobilized guerrillas could not pay, the plaintiffs resorted to TRIA, which allows for the seizure of blocked assets from any “agent or instrumentality” of a terrorist group. In 2022, a Florida court determined that Samark López acted as an “instrumentality” of FARC by facilitating drug trafficking and money laundering routes in coordination with Tareck El Aissami. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed the decision in 2024.
The 2025 Judicial Blow: Asset Turnover Order
On October 2, 2025, Judge Sarah Netburn of the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York issued a decisive order.
López Bello and his company Yakima Trading have until October 14 to respond to the turnover motion (asset delivery, ECF 563), jointly filed by Citibank, SIX SIS (Swiss custodian), and the plaintiffs (ECF 581–582).
If they fail to respond—and since López remains detained in Caracas, it seems unlikely—plaintiffs may execute the order to seize millions of dollars in blocked assets, including PDVSA bonds and funds in U.S. accounts.
Replies from the parties are expected by October 21.
“It’s like the devil paying the devil,” commented an attorney connected to the case, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The money these officials stole from the Venezuelan people could end up compensating Americans tortured by guerrillas that they themselves helped to finance.”
The Villains of Chavismo: From Powerful to Hostages of the Regime
Tareck El Aissami, former Vice President, Minister of Oil, and one of Nicolás Maduro’s closest allies, was sanctioned in 2017 by the U.S. Treasury as a “special narcotics trafficker” for facilitating cocaine shipments to the United States in collaboration with FARC structures.
His partner Samark López Bello, an aviation businessman and alleged frontman, operated a money-laundering network through charter flights and financial transfers disguised as oil contracts. Both accumulated fortunes in cryptocurrencies, private jets, and offshore companies.
In April 2024, the Venezuelan Anti-Corruption Police arrested them during an internal purge at PDVSA, accusing them of fraud, money laundering, and treason against the homeland. According to Attorney General Tarek William Saab, they diverted hundreds of millions in crude oil sales collected in cryptocurrencies outside the control of the Central Bank.
Today, El Aissami and López Bello remain imprisoned in El Rodeo prison, turned into political trophies of a regime that protected them for years. Washington is offering rewards of US$10 million for El Aissami and US$5 million for López Bello.
From Corruption to Geopolitical Karma
The execution process in New York carries a symbolic backdrop: for the first time, a U.S. court could channel stolen funds from the Venezuelan state towards the victims of international terrorism.
The plaintiffs argue that during their tenure, El Aissami and López allowed FARC to move cocaine shipments through Venezuela in exchange for oil kickbacks.
“While they plundered PDVSA, they helped the same groups that kidnapped us,” stated Keith Stansell from Florida. “Now their loot is bringing us some justice.”
However, the case raises a moral dilemma: Should foreign victims receive compensation with public resources taken from a destitute nation?
To critics like American-Venezuelan attorney Eva Golinger, this amounts to “judicial imperialism,” where Washington uses its sanctions and TRIA to squeeze assets from a sovereign state.
Yet others view it as poetic justice. “The ill-gotten money that fueled terror is now compensating the suffering that terror caused,” asserts an analyst from the Council on Foreign Relations.
Case Chronology
The story dates back to February 2003, when a Cessna 208 contracted by the DEA was shot down by FARC in the Colombian jungle, initiating over five years of captivity for American contractors Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves, and Thomas Howes. This tragic episode became the legal basis for the lawsuit filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), which in 2010 awarded the victims US$318 million for damages suffered.
Years later, in 2017, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Tareck El Aissami and Samark López Bello, officially designating them as “specially designated narcotics traffickers” under OFAC regulations. This measure led to the immediate freezing of their assets, bank accounts, and properties linked to money laundering and bribery schemes associated with the state-run PDVSA.
In April 2024, both ex-officials were arrested in Caracas during an anti-corruption purge promoted by Nicolás Maduro’s regime. The operation, presented as an act of transparency, unveiled a massive cryptocurrency fraud and oil sales outside the Central Bank’s control, leading to formal charges of money laundering, fraud, and treason against the homeland.
By 2025, the case took an international turn. In the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Judge Sarah Netburn issued an asset turnover order, citing Citibank and Swiss entity SIX SIS as financial custodians involved in the turnover motion. This measure opened the door for the transfer of blocked funds to the victims of the Stansell et al. v. FARC case.
Finally, in October 2025, the process entered its decisive phase: Samark López Bello had to respond to the judicial motion by October 14, and if he failed to do so, the court could authorize an immediate seizure of the blocked assets. All indications suggest that, if a timely valid response is not submitted, the millions linked to the Venezuelan oil corruption scheme will pass into the hands of those who, decades ago, were victims of the terror financed by that same money.
The Price of Irony
If the New York court approves the execution, millions in assets linked to El Aissami and López Bello could fall into the hands of the former contractors.
A circular—and bitter—closure for a story where corruption, drug trafficking, and international justice intertwine.
“It’s the end of an era of impunity,” stated an expert in international sanctions.
“But it also leaves an open question: who will compensate the Venezuelan people, victims of the same men whose millions now pay for justice in another country?”
The judicial clock is ticking.
The irony has already exploded.