
Oil tycoon Wilmer Ruperti showed up for a meeting with Venezuela’s intelligence agency last Thursday. A week later, he’s still in custody, one of his lawyers told Semafor.
“We’ve reached out to everybody trying to get proof of life or some support,” Winston & Strawn’s Cari Stinebower said, adding that officials still haven’t conveyed “how he’s being treated or why he’s being detained.”
Ruperti, who arrived at the meeting with a security detail, is a Venezuelan Italian shipping magnate who trades in petroleum coke. His detainment followed interim President Delcy Rodríguez’s decision to elevate the agency’s longtime chief to defense minister.
“The message is that Venezuela is open for business — but detaining businessmen for days on end without any due process or access to counsel is more old regime,” Stinebower said. “This is not law and order and not conducive of a welcoming business environment.”
The State Department and Energy Department did not respond to requests for comment.
LATEST POSTS
- 1
Dominating the Art of Composing: Creator Bits of knowledge - 2
The powerful new Rubin Observatory just found 11,000 new asteroids and measured 'tens of thousands more' - 3
4 well known subjects in school - 4
From Modesty to Administration: Self-improvement in Interactive abilities - 5
The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks tonight, but will the full 'Wolf Moon' outshine the show?
Health Rounds: Regeneron drug wipes out residual multiple myeloma cells in small trial
7 Well known Vacation spots In The US
See as Your #1: These Low-Sugar Food sources You Ought to Attempt
Living Abroad: Social Inundation and Self-improvement
Scientists map of old Mars river basins for the 1st time. These could be great places to search for ancient life
My Excursion to Monetary Autonomy: Awesome ways to save cash
Director Emerald Fennell explains why "Wuthering Heights" has quotation marks around the title
Vote in favor of your Number one Kind of Shades
Eleven arrested over mass shooting in South Africa tavern












