Venezuela’s Cryptocurrency Petro and the U.S. Sanctions

Venezuela was struggling to cope with numerous issues even before the coronavirus pandemic. Interestingly, this South American country has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. However, the state of the local economy is far from being ideal. The country unveiled its cryptocurrency called petro several years ago. Nevertheless, it is hard to describe this crypto money as a successful project.

Notably, this week U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made the decision to add Joselit Ramirez Camacho to its Most Wanted List. He is the superintendent of Venezuela’s petro initiative.

According to the U.S. authorities, he violated several rules related to international commerce and he took part in international drug trafficking.

Moreover, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arm wants to arrest the superintendent of Venezuela’s petro initiative. Based on the information provided by the U.S. authorities, he violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Kingpin Act. This is not the end of the story as he also broke several sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department.

Crypto Chief, petro and legal aspects

The U.S. authorities are ready to pay up to $5 million for any information that leads to his arrest and conviction. Furthermore, if arrested Ramirez Camacho will be sent to the U.S. The trial of Venezuela’s crypto chief will take place in the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

On January 5 2018, Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro announced Venezuela would issue 100 million tokens of petro. According to Maduro, petro would be backed by Venezuela’s reserves of oil as well as gasoline, gold, and diamonds.

People should not forget that U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order. This order prohibited transactions of any cryptocurrency issued by this South American country, by the U.S. person or within the country. Last but not least, this order is in place for more than 2 years.