Venezuela Oil Workers Want Reform After SEC Freezes Pension Fund

[maddezmom]

Source: Dow Jones

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Union officials for Venezuela's oil industry are demanding accountability and reform after nearly $500 million of the workers' pension fund was frozen by U.S. financial regulators last month as part of a securities fraud case against a former advisor to Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela.

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Speaking to the National Assembly earlier this month, Ramirez said the workers were in control of the retirement fund. He told lawmakers the pensions "are not administered in this case by the company, the workers have a civil association that administers their own funds," according to an official transcript. A PdVSA spokesman stood by the comments and decline any further comment on the pension issue.

Gidot would not directly address Ramirez's statement. But he insisted that the oil workers have long been denied control over their pensions. "The only industry in this country where the workers don't elect their own representatives for administrating their pension funds is the petroleum industry," Gidot said.

He did not fault the present leadership of PdVSA but instead blamed standing administrative rules that predate the "Bolivarian Revolution" of President Hugo Chavez, who first took office in early 1999.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110228-712007.html

[robinlynne]

1. why does the united states have anything to do with their pension fund?

Was it invested in the US stock market?

[maddezmom]

2. yes, details in the link

:hi:

[AndyTiedye]

3. Details are Behind the Subscription Wall

and I'm not subscribing to anything Murdoch owns.

[maddezmom]

4. wow, when I first posted it I got the full article and I'm not a subscriber

will see if I can find anything else.

[maddezmom]

5. here is a bit more. If you google the title you can get the whole article

Many union members take exception to Ramirez's claim since PdVSA's finance department, headed by Eudomario Carruyo, is supposed to be handling the funds. Carruyo could not be reached for comment.

According to the FUTPV, in June, Carruyo was responsible for handing the $500 million PdVSA pension assets to Francisco Illarramendi, the majority owner of Michael Kenwood Group LLC, an unregistered investment adviser based in Stamford, Conn.

In the SEC's complaint, the agency alleges that Illarramendi used at least $53 million of the investors' money as his own. Around 90% of the firm's capital came from PdVSA, the SEC said.

"Illarramendi treated his clients' money like it was his own, diverting millions of dollars that did not belong to him," said David Bergers, director of the SEC's Boston Regional Office, in a press release . "He abused his position of trust with his clients and breached his responsibilities as an investment adviser." The case is pending, a SEC spokesman said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110228-712007.html?mod=WSJ_Banking_middleHeadlines