Eight people have been charged in a $1.2 billion money-laundering scheme involving Venezuela's state-run oil and natural gas company.
In a Wednesday news release, Miami U.S. Attorney Benjamin Greenberg said the scheme began in 2014 with bribery and fraud at the state-run PDVSA enterprise. He said it grew over time.
A criminal complaint says the scheme involved members of the Venezuelan elite, money managers, brokerage firms, banks and real estate investment firms.
Forty-four-year-old Mathias Krull, a German national and Panama resident, was arrested at Miami International Airport.
A second suspect, 45-year-old Gustavo Adolfo Hernandez Frieri, a Colombian national and naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested in Sicily.
According to authorities, the other suspects are at large.