Venezuelan president’s jet seized by US for alleged violations of sanctions, export controls
The United States has seized an aircraft used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, alleging it was purchased in violation of US sanctions and export controls.
The Dassault Falcon 900EX was seized in the Dominican Republic and flown to Florida in the United States, the Department of Justice (‘DOJ’) said in a press release, 2 September.
It alleged that in late 2022 and early 2023, persons affiliated with Maduro had used a Caribbean-based shell company to conceal their involvement in the illegal purchase of the plane for approximately $13 million from a company based in Florida.
It was illegally exported from the US to Venezuela through the Caribbean in April 2023 and since shortly after ‘has flown almost exclusively to and from a military base in Venezuela and has been used for the benefit of Maduro and his representatives, including to transport Maduro on visits to other countries,’ the DOJ alleged.
‘Let this seizure send a clear message: aircraft illegally acquired from the United States for the benefit of sanctioned Venezuelan officials cannot just fly off into the sunset,’ said US Assistant Commerce Secretary Matthew Axelrod. ‘It doesn’t matter how fancy the private jet or how powerful the officials – we will work relentlessly with our partners here and across the globe to identify and return any aircraft illegally smuggled outside of the United States.’
An August 2019 Executive Order prohibits US persons from engaging in transactions with persons affiliated with Maduro’s government, which the US does not recognize.
‘To protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, the Department of Commerce has also imposed export controls for items intended, entirely or in part, for a Venezuelan military or military-intelligence end user,’ the DOJ explained.
In February, US authorities announced the seizure in Argentina of a Boeing 747 aircraft that had been sold by a sanctioned Iranian airline to Venezuelan cargo carrier EMTRASUR, claiming that the sale of the plane and its illegal flights thereafter had violated US sanctions and export control laws.
