NEW YORK – New attention is being drawn to longstanding corruption allegations surrounding Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), after renewed reports and political commentary revived questions about the role of Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, a former senior financial official and nephew of Cilia Flores, wife of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The claims center on accusations that large sums of oil revenue may have been diverted through private financial structures and offshore entities during Malpica Flores’ time as finance vice president of PDVSA and Venezuela’s national treasurer.
However, a fact-check of the circulating claims shows that some of the strongest allegations currently being shared online are exaggerated or unsupported by publicly available evidence.
There is no verified evidence from The New York Times confirming the claim that “one out of every two dollars” entering PDVSA was diverted into private channels.
That specific figure could not be independently confirmed.
What is documented, however, is that Malpica Flores has long been tied to U.S. corruption investigations.
In 2017, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned him as part of broader measures against Venezuelan officials accused of corruption and undermining democratic institutions.
U.S. prosecutors and financial investigators have also linked several Venezuelan businessmen and former PDVSA officials to what became known as the “Money Flight” case, involving billions of dollars in alleged financial manipulation and exchange-rate fraud tied to PDVSA debt structures.
Malpica Flores has repeatedly appeared in those investigations as a key financial figure during the Maduro era.
A recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal also described Cilia Flores’ wider political and family network as having benefited from state contracts and influence within PDVSA, although the article stops short of directly proving that specific oil-sale revenues were stolen through shell companies by Malpica Flores himself.
For critics of the Maduro government, the renewed focus reinforces what they have long argued: that Venezuela’s economic collapse was driven not only by sanctions or external pressure, but also by years of internal corruption and institutional mismanagement.
PDVSA, once one of Latin America’s most powerful state oil companies, has seen production collapse dramatically over the past decade amid corruption scandals, sanctions and infrastructure decay.
The issue remains highly relevant for Curaçao, given the island’s historical economic ties to Venezuela’s oil industry and the strategic role the Isla Refinery once played in PDVSA’s regional operations.
While the full scope of alleged financial diversion remains under legal and political dispute, the renewed allegations are likely to keep pressure on Maduro’s inner circle as international scrutiny of Venezuela’s oil sector continues.