Alirio and Jose Luis Zambrano, two Venezuelan-American former executives of the oil company Citgo who were detained for almost five years in Venezuela, have sued their former employer for over $400 million Thursday (May 30), alleging it for conspiring to lure them to the South American nation and abandoned them there to suffer jail time for crimes they claimed they have not committed.
The Associated Press reported that the Zambrano brothers accused Citgo of letting them and four others, which were eventually known as the Citgo 6, travel to Venezuela under a false pretext of attending a meeting at the headquarters of the company's parent firm, Venezuelan state-owned oil giant PDVSA before the Thanksgiving of 2017. Upon arriving in Caracas, they were hauled from a conference room by masked security agents.
Eventually, a Venezuelan judge sentenced the executives to between 8 to 13 years in prison for their involvement in a never-executed debt financing deal that risked Citgo to be seized by Wall Street creditors, a decision and process that has since been denounced by the US State Department.
The lawsuit was filed in Houston while a federal court in Delaware handles the auction of Citgo to satisfy creditors' claims after going unpaid as a result of the United States taking the company's control from the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has been anti-US since taking over the country. The claims were reported to be worth almost $21 billion.
Zambrano Brothers Allege Citgo of Abandoning Them
Houston Public Media reported that the Venezuelan-born brothers alleged that Citgo's top executives - who, like their PDVSA counterparts, are Maduro hardliners - allegedly ordered them to attend a mandatory meeting in Venezuela, knowing that there was a strong chance they could be arrested.
They also alleged the firm of supplying confidential financial documents to Venezuelan military intelligence officials that facilitated the men's arrest, despite knowing very well that the Zambranos were innocent of the charges "from 'minute one.'"
Citgo also abandoned the families of the executives that were arrested and ignored their requests to help them in their legal defense, the lawsuit added.
The situation improved slightly after a Citgo board appointed by a US-backed opposition led by Juan Guaido took control of the country as part of the Trump administration's efforts to oust Maduro from power.
However, when the imprisoned executives wrote a letter appealing the company to assist them in proving their innocence, it was "shockingly ignored."
The Zambrano brothers were eventually released in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap for two nephews of Maduro's wife who were imprisoned in the US for narcotics charges.
Aside from the brothers, a similar lawsuit was filed last year by fellow Citgo 6 cellmate Tomeu Vedell.
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