Crypto Chaos in Venezuela

Venezuela's Anti-Corruption Investigation Rocks Cryptocurrency Industry: Exchanges and Mining Farms Shut Down

Venezuelan crypto companies - specifically mining farms and exchanges - have reportedly been ordered to shut down over the past few days, following the President's order to restructure the country’s crypto regulatory agency. They seem to have been a casualty of an investigation that resulted in the arrest of 21 individuals.

So who was arrested?

These include the vice president of Commerce and Supply of PDVSA and head of the corruption structure, Antonio José Pérez Suárez; as well as the SUNACRIP and crypto-financial operator, Joselit de La Trinidad Ramírez Camacho, said the announcement. "Likewise, Rajiv Alberto Mosqueda and Renny Gerardo Barrientos, both belonging to the Digital Mining and Associated Processes, appear on the list."

Camacho had led the crypto department since it was established in 2018, overseeing crypto tax rules and the country’s crypto PetroDollar. He is also on the US Most Wanted List since June 2020.

So... the crypto regulator needs regulating! Chaos. But also looks like a sting to cripple Venezuela's crypto infrastructure.

Tarek William Saab Halabi was born in Venezuela but with Lebanese Druze parents. The one odd thing in his sketchy Wankipedia biog - the Spanish one has more details, although misses this - is the 2 years of missing time at university, graduating much later than his cohort.