Wealthy Venezuelan businessman facing corruption charges in Miami dies in his sleep
Naman Wakil, a Venezuelan businessman accused in Miami of laundering some of the hundreds of millions of dollars he allegedly made as part of a corruption scheme, died in his sleep Monday, his lawyer said.
Wakil was scheduled to go to trial in federal court in October on charges of paying millions in bribes to Venezuelan officials in exchange for securing government contracts between 2010 and 2017, and investing part of his illegal profits in luxury properties, including his family’s condo at the Residences at Vizcaya on Hiawatha Avenue in Coconut Grove as well as in high-rise units on Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami and at the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach.
“Mr. Wakil passed away in his sleep yesterday morning,” his lawyer, Howard Srebnick, said Tuesday.
Wakil died in his home, where he was living while free on bond pending trial. Family members have not disclosed details about the cause of the businessman’s death, but the indictment against him will probably be dismissed, as it is usually the case when a defendant dies.
Wakil, 62, faced federal charges because authorities say he invested part of his illegal profits in the United States. His assets totaled more than $50 million and, besides the luxury real estate properties, included a yacht and an airplane.
Wakil is among a number in Venezuela’s politically connected business class to be accused in Miami federal court of exploiting cozy relationships with senior officials in the governments of past President Hugo Chavez and current President Nicolas Maduro to enrich themselves through inflated government contracts, lucrative loans and currency exchange schemes. Most of their money has ended up in Swiss and other foreign bank accounts, along with investments in South Florida real estate.
The embezzlement of billions of dollars from Venezuela’s socialist government, particularly from its main source of income, the national oil company known as PDVSA, has contributed to the South American nation’s drastic economic collapse, forcing millions of people to flee to neighboring countries and the United States, U.S. authorities say.
Wakil, a Syrian-born entrepreneur, gained notoriety in 2016 when he was featured in a McClatchy series on the Panama Papers scandal that exposed secret shell companies set up in off-shore bank accounts by the wealthy clients of a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The accounts were set up to help the law firm’s clients hide money, make foreign investments and evade taxes, according to the McClatchy series.
In the spring of 2015, according to one McClatchy story, a Miami-based Citigroup banker emailed the Panamanian law firm with an inquiry about a wealthy client who needed assistance.
Mossack Fonseca’s leaked emails identified that client as Wakil, a globetrotting entrepreneur worth about $400 million with business interests in both North Carolina and Miami. He wanted to reduce his U.S. tax liability and protect his assets from creditors, his lawyer’s memo indicates.
The Panamanian law firm proposed creating a series of trusts and offshore companies for the client. A year later, Wakil was embroiled in a controversy that tied him to a Venezuelan general in an alleged procurement scam that reportedly netted $76 million.
In 2019, Bloomberg described Wakil as a former street peddler who accumulated vast wealth through the purchase of discounted meat products that were sold at vastly inflated prices to the Venezuelan government.
Wakil, who was born in Aleppo, immigrated to Venezuela and grew up in Caracas’ Petare district, one of the world’s largest slums. He rose from selling goods on the streets to immense wealth.
According to a Venezuelan audit commission’s findings, he had a close relationship with Carlos Osorio, a major general in Venezuela’s military who oversaw billions of dollars of food contracts as the nation’s food minister.
