Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), a division of the US Immigration Customs Immigration (ICE) announced Monday that a Venezuelan official who led the development of Venezuela’s Petro cryptocurrency has been added to the agency’s Most Wanted List.
Ramirez Joselit, the administrator of Petro, has been accused of having deep political, social, and economic ties to multiple alleged narcotic kingpins, including Venezuela’s former president Tareck El Aissami.
The US government is now looking to arrest Ramirez and has promised a $5 million reward for anyone who could provide any information that will lead to his arrest and conviction.
This move is part of the efforts of the US authorities to end the corruption and criminal acts connected to President Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela.
33-year-old Ramirez has been serving as the Venezuelan superintendent of cryptocurrency since 2018. The indictment filed against him by the Southern District of New York include the violation of the International Emergency Economic Power Act, the Kingpin Act, and other sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.
Ramirez was placed on the ICE’s most wanted list almost the same time when Venezuela announced that its citizens can now purchase gas with the sanctioned Petro cryptocurrency after receiving five tankers of gasoline from Iran without interference from the US government.
Although President Donald Trump issued an executive order in 2018 banning the use of Petro for transactions across the United States, Maduro ignored Trump’s sanction and has made Petro a means of payment in Venezuela.
The US governments announced that they were investigating Ramirez earlier this year for his involvement with other Venezuelan corrupt officials, including President Nicolás Maduro. A $15 million was the bounty on President Maduro, and $10 million for some other high ranking officials including Tereck El Aissami, Hugo Carvajal, Diosdado Cabello, and Cliver Alcala.
