Pemex: Oil theft case nabs second executive
Pemex oil theft case nabs second exec
The president of an Edinburg gas company pleaded guilty today in Houston federal court on charges relating to theft of an oil product from Mexico's oil giant, Pemex.
Arnoldo Maldonado of Y Oil and Gas was released on unsecured bond pending sentencing after entering the plea to conspiracy to knowingly receive petroleum condensate, court records show. .
Documents said Maldonado helped others, between January and March, arrange for at least 22 tanker trucks to transport condensate from Mexico into the US, knowing it was stolen.
Maldonado was not available for comment, a San Antonio Express-News report said.
Mexican officials have said operatives of the Gulf Cartel's armed enforcement wing, Los Zetas, provided the condensate by illegally tapping into Pemex pipelines and selling it on the black market.
The investigation began in 2007 after Mexican authorities told US agents that some of the stolen condensate was winding up in Texas.
Mexican officials gave the names of some individuals and companies suspected of importing and reselling the stolen condensate, and ICE agents have identified several.
Federal prosecutors have so far brought charges only against Maldonado and a former executive of Trammo Petroleum in Houston, but have frozen funds in bank accounts of two San Antonio companies as the investigation continues.
The prosecutors have also subpoenaed shipment records of larger companies that bought it, including Murphy Energy of Oklahoma and Germany-based BASF.
Both say they did not know the condensate was stolen and that they are cooperating with authorities.
In May, Donald Schroeder, former Trammo executive, pleaded guilty to knowingly buying and reselling stolen condensate.
Assistant US Attorney Jim McAlister said at the time that the condensate was sold for about $2 million and that Trammo made $150,000 profit.
Schroeder agreed to pay a $2 million fine, and in August, American officials handed over a $2.4 million check from Trammo to Mexican authorities as repayment for stolen condensate.
Schroeder and Maldonado are cooperating with prosecutors, so the government lawyers worked out plea arrangements and did not take their cases before grand juries, records show.
In April, Mexican security forces arrested a group that allegedly made $46 million in the past two years smuggling stolen petroleum condensates to the US.
The organisation is linked to the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, officials said.
Pemex, with $77 billion in revenue, pays taxes that make up a major share of the Mexican government's budget.