Houston oil firm dragged down by giant octopus of Venezuelan corruption

[endicom]

American Thinker
Monica Showalter
Feb. 19, 2018

A Houston oil company, Harvest Natural Resources, Inc., is suing Venezuelan Chavista stalwart Rafael Ramirez, who served as the communist regime's oil minister for a spell, on the grounds that his shakedowns forced them to lose $470 million from sales of their assets.

According to Bloomberg:

Harvest Natural Resources Inc. said that because it rebuffed four separate $10 million bribe demands from associates of Ramirez, Venezuela's power ministry withheld approval for Harvest to sell its energy assets in the South American nation.  That resulted in losses of $470 million, according to a complaint filed Friday in Houston federal court.

So it's come to this in socialist Venezuela: a bubbling pit of corruption that had been great for foreign investors to do business in so long as the gravy lasted that has now fallen upon hard times now that oil prices have fallen and night has descended.

More... https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/02/houston_oil_firm_dragged_down_by_giant_octopus_of_venezuelan_corruption.html

[dfwgator]

They chose poorly.

[endicom]

They chose poorly.

They did. But they apparently did not pay the bribes so I'm not sure if I should agree with Showalter.

In any case, I thought it an interesting story.