A former executive at Citgo Petroleum Corp who was imprisoned in Venezuela for nearly five years is demanding $100 million in damages from the firm on the grounds that it failed to protect him from arrest or defend him against the charges that followed.
Tomeu Vadell and his family filed the case in a Texas state court on Tuesday, alleging that Citgo sent him to Caracas despite being aware of the “there was an extremely high risk” to his safety. According to the lawsuit, he was abused in jail and he and his family were abandoned by the firm.
Vadell and the other executives were called to a meeting at Citgo’s parent company, Petroleos de Venezuela, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company. They were detained and eventually accused in relation to a failed refinancing arrangement for Citgo. In 2020, a Venezuelan court sentenced the CEOs to between eight and thirteen years in prison.
Five of the original seven executives arrested in 2017 were released last October as part of a deal involving the release of relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro imprisoned in the United States. One Citgo detainee was released early, while the seventh detainee died in a Venezuelan prison.
Citgo issued the following statement: “We greatly sympathize with Mr. Vadell for everything he and his family have been through,” “We disagree with this lawsuit, which irresponsibly equates CITGO, an American company based in Houston, with an authoritarian regime in Venezuela.”
The company “supported Mr. Vadell and his family in significant financial and other ways,” according to the spokeswoman.