The names of Majed Khalil Majzoub (13526338) and Arturo Sarmiento Pérez (11669931) are once again linked to one of the murkiest operations tied to the Venezuelan oil business. At the center of this case is the acquisition of 11 ships laden with crude oil, which contributed to a multi-million dollar debt with PDVSA. According to documents and reports pertaining to the case, this scheme involved payment triangulation, shell companies, and privileged access to shipments during the most chaotic years of the oil marketing system under sanctions.
Far from being an isolated operation, the documents describe a broader structure where Majed Khalil is identified as a key node. His name is connected to financial intermediation mechanisms, the use of offshore companies, and payment diversions in transactions of Venezuelan crude carried out outside traditional circuits. In this same web, Arturo Sarmiento emerges as a central operator within the corporate platforms that enabled the extraction, location, and resale of oil while the state-owned company accumulated unpaid invoices and outstanding commitments. One of the most cited pieces in this puzzle is Montmagastre Ventures, a company attributed with a debt exceeding 310 million dollars to the state oil company.
However, the case is not limited to shipments and unpaid vessels. Investigations surrounding this network also point to a parallel mechanism for capital accumulation through cryptocurrencies bought at prices well below their real value, in some instances with discounts of up to 70%. This circuit, as the uncovered information suggests, appears to be linked to funds from Iran’s so-called H group and operators suspected of handling resources connected to illicit financing. The equation was simple: turn oil into quick cash and convert that cash into hard-to-trace assets.
Within this landscape, the Khalil brothers are intertwined with export routes, international operators, and corporate networks that have capitalized on the collapse of control mechanisms within PDVSA for years. Arturo Sarmiento, in turn, repeatedly emerges as part of the corporate structure that sustained these maneuvers. Ships dispatched without payment, crude oil moved through intermediaries, cryptocurrencies acquired at extreme discounts, and instrumental companies spread across various jurisdictions form a common pattern: the conversion of Venezuelan oil into a private source of accelerated enrichment.
These reports reveal the existence of a machine that found the ideal environment for expansion in sanctions, administrative opacity, and political connections. Rather than serving as an exceptional outlet for crude marketing, this network ended up operating as a parallel business system with enormous benefits for its operators and colossal losses for PDVSA. In this scenario, Majed Khalil and Arturo Sarmiento once again come under scrutiny as two essential names to understand one of the darkest chapters of recent Venezuelan oil plunder.