Podcast: White Collars, Dirty Hands

Ever since it was pumped by commercial rigs from beneath the shores of Lake Maracaibo over a century ago, oil has been both a blessing and a curse for Venezuela. It has fueled boom times and bust times. It gave rise to an urban middle class — and then an echelon of elites who plundered the nation’s oil wealth, amassing billions as the rest of the country collapsed into poverty. 

In recent weeks, U.S. President Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that a thirst for oil drove his administration’s controversial capture of former president Nicolás Maduro. With Maduro out and Trump calling the shots, the rules of Venezuelan oil are being rewritten once again, and the question, as always, is who is set to benefit. 

As the world waits to see what designs Trump and Venezuela’s new regime have on the country’s vast reserves of ‘black gold,’ OCCRP presents a deep-dive into the corruption that has warped the oil sector’s recent past with a new podcast, White Collars, Dirty Hands. 

From OCCRP and the Colombian production company La No Ficción, this investigative series follows exiled Venezuelan journalist Laura Weffer as she tracks down Carmelo Urdaneta, a former high-level official in Venezuela's oil ministry who sits at the heart of a billion-dollar money laundering conspiracy.

Over five episodes, the podcast unspools how millions of dollars were embezzled from the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), between 2014 and 2018 by a circle of insiders who spent the cash on real estate, yachts, and other luxury assets. 

As part of the investigation, reporters obtained a secret recording in which the mechanics of money laundering are revealed in extraordinary detail: Unaware that they were being taped, a coterie of financiers can be heard discussing precisely how they plan to move dirty money without drawing attention from banks and other financial institutions. 

Behind these financial tricks lies immense personal suffering; The series also traces the human cost of this corruption, including Laura’s own journey into exile and the voices of other Venezuelans who were battling a severe economic crisis at the same time that their stolen oil money was being “cleaned” by professionals abroad.