Teixeira Duarte calls allegations of bribery in Venezuela ‘defamatory’

Teixeira Duarte, one of Portugal’s leading construction groups, has described as “defamatory” allegations that its officials bribed state officials in Venezuela to secure a contract to modernise the port of La Guaira.

“Teixeira Duarte became aware of news broadcast from Venezuela with imputations of illicit actions to Teixeira Duarte, which are absolutely contested and are defamatory,” the company said in a response to Lusa, adding that it knew of no notification from the Venezuelan authorities regarding such allegations.

According to El Nuevo Herald, cited by the Spanish news agency Efe, Venezuela’s office of public prosecutions is investigating alleged payments in the “tens of millions” on the part of Teixeira Duarte to state officials in exchange for a contract to modernise the port in question.

“The complaints filed with the Office of Public Prosecutions of Nicolás Maduro’s regime accuse the Portuguese construction company Teixeira Duarte of paying, through fictitious companies, Venezuelan officials for contracts to expand the port of La Guaira, build a highway and operate in the port for 20 years,” reported the Miami-based newspaper El Nuevo Herald, as cited by Efe.

According to the same publication, no charges have yet been lodged in the investigation and some of the officials involved live in the US. Jorge Hernández Fernández, a businessman, is named as a “central figure” in the case for having allegedly acted as an intermediary in the operation.

The newspaper also cites a 2017 letter from Swiss lawyer Cedric Aquet, who represents the businessman, in which it is explained that Hernández has an agreement granting him 6% of all revenues from the port project and that these had not yet been paid, and that he was therefore threatening to go to court.

The expansion of the port of La Guaira was completed in 2015.