Vitol and Los Zetas in Veracruz
To complement our 2019 investigation, Empower analyzed – in October 2022 – the legal and illicit economic networks of businessman Francisco Colorado Cessa, also known as Pancho Colorado, who established numerous relationships with organized crime groups, businesspeople, members of political parties, and public officials from both the Government of Veracruz and the Mexican Federal Government. Through these relationships, Colorado and his family obtained the authority to act as notary publics, ran for public office, and incorporated companies that were later awarded public tenders in various industries.
In March 2018, Pancho Colorado passed away in a U.S. prison cell, after the Western District of Texas Court sentenced him to 20 years in prison in December 2015 for “conspiracy” to launder drug trafficking proceeds from the drug trafficking organization Los Zetas.
Prior to his death, Colorado established economic ties with a number of business owners in the Mexican energy sector, including Francisco Silva Ramos, who was associated with Pancho Colorado in several companies and someone he trusted deeply. Silva Ramos was the brother of Alberto Silva Ramos, public relations coordinator in the administration of Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa (2010-16) and is believed to have created shell companies in order to obtain public contracts. Another partner was the businessman Luis Roca Ramisa, Venezuelan by birth and naturalized as a Mexican citizen in 2005, in the company RRL Oilfield Services, S.A. de C.V., founded in 2009.
In February 2011, Silva Ramos and Roca Ramisa founded the energy company MTTM Servicios Petroleros, S. de R.L. de C.V. From May 2012 to 2018, Roca Ramisa was the CEO of Vitol Energy México, a subsidiary of the Dutch multinational Vitol, which began operating in Mexico in 2009. In June 2012, Pancho Colorado was arrested in the U.S. for his ties to Los Zetas. Just a month later, Roca Ramisa withdrew from MTTM Servicios Petroleros upon liquidating his shares.
In December 2020, Vitol Inc. — the U.S. subsidiary of Vitol, the largest private energy producer in the world — accepted before a U.S. court that, for over 15 years (2005-20), it had bribed officials at State-owned oil companies such as Petróleos Brasileños S.A. (Petrobras), Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), and EP Petroecuador, in exchange for privileged information that would secure profitable public contracts for the company.
In Mexico, Vitol’s bribes of Pemex officials presumably began in 2015 and continued until 2020. In early 2021, Vitol publicly announced that it intended to pay damages to the Mexican Government in the amount of 30 million USD: 17 million in cash and the remainder in-kind services for Pemex. In return, Vitol would not disclose the names of the corrupt public officials. In June 2022, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-24) announced that Vitol had disclosed the names of these public officials. Nonetheless, by October 2022, neither Pemex nor any other government agency had made public this information.1According to press reports, these contracts with Pemex alone could amount to more than one billion USD. See: “Pemex cancela contratos con Vitol tras escándalo de corrupción,” Forbes, 15 September 2021, www.forbes.com.mx/pemex-cancela-contratos-con-vitol-tras-escandalo-de-corrupcion; and, Adriana Barrera, Ana Isabel Martínez, and Stefanie Eschenbacher, “Exclusiva-México busca mejores términos comerciales con Vitol tras escándalo de sobornos,” Reuters, March 2021, www.reuters.com/article/energia-mexico-vitol-idLTAKBN2BE1DW. Accessed 13 September 2022.
Criminal Networks in the Veracruz Hydrocarbon Industry
During the Herrera and Duarte administrations in Veracruz, criminal pacts were either consolidated or redefined among organized crime groups, businesspeople, and public officials, the purpose of which was to control financial flows from different economic sectors. Pancho Colorado, a Veracruz businessman and financial operator for Los Zetas, is a prime example of this process.
According to the Court for the Western District of Texas, Colorado received 6 million USD from Los Zetas for his company, ADT Petroservicios2Empresas constituidas en México donde Francisco Colorado Cessa es o fue socio o miembro del consejo de administración”, RPC, Op.Cit. Pgs. 17-20., to procure machinery and compete for public tenders from Pemex.3“United States of America vs Jose Trevino-Morales, Francisco Antonio Colorado-Cessa, Fernando Solis-Garcia, Eusevio Maldonado-Huitron, Jesus Maldonado-Huitron. Docket No. A 12-CR-210 SS,” U.S. Department of Justice, Western District of Texas, Op.Cit. Pgs. 140-61. According to the criminal records, Colorado used ADT Petroservicios to triangulate illegal financial transactions and thus launder drug money for Los Zetas, by integrating illicit transactions into contracts with Pemex.4ADT Petroservicios is currently included in the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, or SDN List, of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the U.S. Department of Treasury. Whenever individuals or corporations are listed, it means that they are engaged in activities such as terrorism or drug trafficking, and their assets are blocked; moreover, U.S. individuals or corporations cannot have business dealings with listed entities. See: “Sanctions List Search,” OFAC, 13 August 2021, sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/Details.aspx?id=15015; “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SND) Human Readable List,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, 13 August 2021, www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdnlist.pdf; and, “Federal Jury in Austin Convicts Mexican Businessman in Money Laundering Conspiracy Involving Los Zetas Drug Distribution Proceeds,” U.S. Department of Justice, Western District of Texas, Op.Cit.
As mentioned, in June 2012, Colorado was arrested in the U.S. and sentenced in December 2015 for “conspiracy” to launder drug money for Los Zetas.
According to documents filed with the Mexican Property Registrar, Francisco Silva Ramos, brother of the well-known politician Alberto Silva Ramos, is either a shareholder or has some legal position in three other companies whose controlling shareholder was Colorado: Francisco Silva was a legal representative for ADT Petroservicios (2005-10)5The movements registered in the RPC are not accurate, since the positions held by a person within the board of directors of the companies are not updated. Even so, the latest positions and movements reported in the RPC were taken into account, since they constitute the latest official information available. See: “Empresas constituidas en México donde Francisco Colorado Cessa es o fue socio o miembro del consejo de administración,” RPC, Op.Cit. Pgs. 13-6, 21-2, and 23-8. and Transportadora Especializada Colorado (2009), and a shareholder and legal representative of the agricultural company La Rosa de la Huasteca, S.P.R. de R.L. (2005-10). In this manner, Silva Ramos emerged as an extremely trusted figure in Colorado’s business network.
In February 2011, Francisco Silva incorporated MTTM Servicios Petroleros in Poza Rica, Veracruz, together with Luis Roca Ramisa as the only shareholders. In February 2009, Colorado had incorporated the company RRL Oilfield Services6“RRL Oilfield Services S.A. de C.V. FME: 7240. Oficina Registral Poza Rica. M4. Fecha de inscripción 16/02/2009. Número de documento: 18543,” RPC-SIGER, Op.Cit.; and, “RRL Oilfield Services S.A. de C.V. FME: 7240. Oficina Registral Poza Rica. M10. Fecha de ingreso:17/11/2010. Número de documento: 152,” RPC, Op.Cit. www.documentcloud.org/documents/21063242-rrloilfield-m4_m10. also in Poza Rica; its shareholders included Roca Ramisa7Since Vitol does not publish financial or annual reports, nor does it disclose its executive team, it is not possible to determine with certainty whether Roca Ramisa still holds a director position at Vitol Energy México. See: “Luis Roca Ramisa, CV,” LinkedIn; and, “Audiencia de Migración Miahuapan. Vitol Energy México,” Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos, December 2015, cnh.gob.mx/media/2195/04-vitol-energy-m%C3%A9xico.pdf. and José Cruz de León Mojarro, a former oil well drilling and maintenance manager for the Pemex PEP8Within this scheme, Óscar García Rojas was designated sole director in 2010. Prior to that, he was the head of the Superintendent’s Office for Material Resources, Drilling and Maintenance of Pemex Exploración y Producción wells (a subsidiary) based in Poza Rica, Veracruz. See: Arturo Zárate, “Protegen con Subterfugios a Directivos de Pemex,” El Universal, 2003, archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/101218.html; “Padrón de Jubilados y Pensionados. Tercer Trimestre 2020,” Fondo Laboral de Pemex, 2020, www.pemex.com/inai/pemex/Fraccion%20II/Jubilados/Padr%C3%B3n_Jubilados_PM_03_Trim2020/ Padr%C3%B3n_Jubilados_Pensionados_03_Trim2020.pdf. Pg. 327; and, “Pemex Exploración y Producción. Gerencia de Perforación y Mantenimiento de Pozos. Subgerencia de Administración y Finanzas. Licitación Pública Internacional. Convocatoria 033,” Diario Oficial de la Federación (DOF), 2003, www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.phpcodigo=726592&fecha=27/05/2003&print=true;r%C3%B3n_Jubilados_ Pensionados_03_Trim2020.pdf. Accessed 13 September 2022. northern region.
In early 2018, Roca Ramisa left Vitol. On June 13, 2022, Empower contacted him using a number listed as Petroglobal (this company appeared on his LinkedIn). The call was to inform him that we were conducting an investigation about his ties to Pancho Colorado, to which Roca explicitly answered that “he was just a consultant for Colorado” because Colorado was a “well-known figure in the Mexican oil circle.” When told that we had corporate records issued by the governments of Mexico and Veracruz confirming his involvement as Colorado’s partner in an oil company, Roca replied that the “next phone call would be taken by his attorney” and hung up.
Between 2002-11, ADT Petroservicios and MTTM Servicios Petroleros secured 59 contracts with the Government of Veracruz and Pemex, totaling 278.9 million USD. Of 38 contracts awarded by Pemex, two were granted to MTTM Servicios Petroleros (#424011819 and #424011853), totaling 56.1 million USD. And one of these was a joint venture with ADT Petroservicios. Both were signed by Francisco Silva Ramos with the purpose of conducting measurements at the Activo Integral Aceite Terciario del Golfo (AIATG) project wells through December 2013.
In July 2012, Roca Ramisa sold his shares and resigned from his positions at MTTM Servicios Petroleros; nonetheless, the contracts with Pemex had already been signed. Two months prior, in May 2012, he had joined Vitol Energy México as its in-country CEO.
The following figure shows the positions that Roca Ramisa held at Vitol subsidiaries, as well as the companies where he partnered with Colorado, Francisco Silva, and former Pemex employees.
Prior to joining Vitol, between 2007-11, Roca Ramisa incorporated five companies in Mexico to conduct business in the hydrocarbon sector. In two of them — Chicontepec Engineering Services and Well Clean — he partnered with José Cruz de León Mojarro and Óscar García Rojas, both former Pemex officials.9“Pemex Exploración y Producción. Gerencia de Perforación y Mantenimiento de Pozos. Subgerencia de Administración y Finanzas. Licitación Pública Internacional. Convocatoria 033,” DOF, 2003, www.dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.phpcodigo=726592&fecha=27/05/2003&print=true;r%C3%B3n_Jubilados_ Pensionados_03_Trim2020.pdf.
By August 2014, Vitol Energy México and its subsidiaries Petrolera Amatitlán and Petrolera Miahuapan had been awarded two oil extraction contracts for the Amatitlán and Miahuapan mature fields within the AIATG, owned by Pemex. Both MTTM Servicios Petroleros and ADT Petroservicios were working the Amatitlán and Miahuapan10“Contrato para la Producción de Hidrocarburos, en el Área Contractual Amatitlán entre Pemex Exploración y Producción, Petrolera de Amatitlán, S.A.P.I. de C.V.” and “Contrato para Producción de Hidrocarburos, en el Área Contractual Miahuapan entre Pemex Exploración y Producción, Petrolera Miahuapan, S.A.P.I. de C.V.,” Pemex, www.documentcloud.org/documents/21062962-contratos-amatitlan-y-miahupan-2014. Pgs. 32 and 179. fields, but it is unknown whether Vitol obtained privileged information about field reserves through Ramisa. What is known is that Vitol hired him as its CEO in Mexico, an individual who was a MTTM Servicios Petroleros shareholder; that MTTM was contracted to conduct hydrocarbon measurements of AIATG wells; and that, three years later in 2014, Vitol secured two contracts to extract hydrocarbons from the same AIATG fields where both MTTM Servicios Petroleros and ADT Petroservicios had been contracted. This suggests that there may have been collusion between Pancho Colorado, Francisco Silva Ramos, and Luis Roca Ramisa’s companies and Vitol businesses in Veracruz.
Opaqueness and Illegality in Vitol’s Contracts
Vitol is a privately-held conglomerate that focuses on trading, extracting, refining, and transporting oil and gas, and generating renewable energies. It was founded in Rotterdam, Holland, in 1966 and its parent company is Vitol Holding II S.A., based in Luxembourg.11“Vitol Holding II S.A Filling Number B43512,” Luxembourg Company Register, 1993 www.documentcloud.org/ documents/21062989-registre-de-commerce-et-des-societes-vitol-holdings-ii; and, “Vitol Holding II S.A.,” Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF), 2018, search.gleif.org/#/record/5493009C94ZZV7J5IO93. Accessed 13 September 2022. Luxembourg is considered a tax haven because companies registered there are not required to disclose the identity of ownership, nor submit annual reports or any other type of corporate information.
By 2021, Vitol’s revenues grew to 279 billion USD worldwide. One of the reasons Vitol grew during the pandemic was its business model, which is based on a network of subsidiaries with the ability to buy low-cost products and resell when and where demand and prices are higher. Vitol also made purchases in armed conflict zones and in countries with governments prone to corruption.
In 2007, Vitol pleaded guilty before the New York Supreme Court to “theft” and for having paid 13 million USD in bribes to officials of the National Iraqi Oil Company in exchange for oil trading contracts.12“Big Business Low Profile. Shedding light on oil trader Vitol’s operations in Nigeria,” Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, October 2020, www.somo.nl/big-business-low-profile. Accessed 13 September 2022. Pg. 27.
In yet another example, Vitol’s CEO, Ian Taylor, flew to Libya in 2011 to close oil supply deals with rebel factions of Muammar Gaddaffi’s government.13Jessica Donati, “Libyan rebels seal new deal with Vitol: traders,” Reuters, 12 May 2011, www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-vitol- idUSTRE74B5KF20110512; and, Javier Blas and Andy Hoffman, and Javier Blas, and Andy Hoffman, “Inside Vitol: How the World’s Largest Oil Trader Makes Billions,” Bloomberg, 21 May 2016, www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-06-01/giant-oil-trader-vitol-makes-billions-in-volatile-times. Accessed 13 September 2022. When the rebels overthrew the government, Vitol secured deals to trade Libyan oil, claiming that it had bid on equal terms with other competitors.
In 2018, the Brazilian Attorney General’s Office accused Vitol of being involved in the operation “Lava Jato”14In March 2014, Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office uncovered a bribery network between Petrobras executives and major construction companies, which agreed to overbill public contracts by 1% to 3%. Odebrecht, one of the companies, admitted to bribing former head of Pemex Emilio Lozoya Austín with 5 to 10 million USD between 2012-15 to secure public contracts. See: “United States of America vs Odebrecht S.A.,” U.S. Department of Justice, 21 December 2016, www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/odebrecht-and-braskem-plead-guilty-and-agree-pay-least-35-billion-global-criminal; and, “Denuncia de hechos presentada por Emilio Lozoya Austín,” FGR, June 2020, www.documentcloud.org/documents/21062979-fgr-lozoya-agosto-2020. Accessed 13 September 2022. and of briving Petrobras officials with 8 million USD between 2005-14 to secure contracts that led to 33 million USD in revenue.
In the Mexican case, Vitol paid bribes to Pemex officials’ bank accounts between 2015-20, using shell companies controlled by a citizen of Curaçao. Mexican officials are not named in the sentence, but a Mexican national residing in Houston, Texas, Javier Alejandro Aguilar Morales (legal representative of Vitol Inc.), is named as the middleman in the bribery network. He was also the legal representative of Vitol Marketing México in 2017.15“Respuesta a solicitud de acceso a la información dirigida a la CRE. Folio 181100052918. Expediente de Permiso de Comercialización de hidrocarburos, petrolíferos y petroquímicos H-20392-COM-2017. Vitol Marketing México,” CRE, tinyurl.com/yjh3zdpt. Accessed 13 September 2022. Pgs. 5-9.
The following figure illustrates the positions Aguilar Morales held at the companies Terminal Río Bravo and Recursos Administrativos y de Personal Río Bravo, coinciding with the period when Roca Ramisa acted as legal representative and secretary of the same companies.16“Empresas constituidas en México donde Francisco Colorado Cessa es o fue socio o miembro del consejo de administración,” RPC, www.documentcloud.org/documents/21063499-empresas-luis-roca. Accessed 13 September 2022. Pgs. 30-56.
Vitol in Mexico
Vitol first began operations in Mexico in 2009.17“Vitol S.A., LEI CODE LRTJ90BDKWYUKQ3QY8116,” GLEIF, search.gleif.org/#/record/LRTJ90BDKWYUKQ3QY816; and, “United States of America vs Vitol Inc.,” U.S. Department of Justice, Op.Cit. Pg. 28. It incorporated at least nine companies in Mexico using its network of subsidiaries based in tax havens.
The following figure illustrates Vitol’s subsidiary ownership structure and the contracts that subsidiaries were awarded by State-owned companies, such as CFE and Pemex. The pink lines represent share ownership among legal entities, while the green lines represent public contracts with Mexican government agencies.
Vitol profited from public contracts for the supply of raw materials such as gas and coal in Mexico. This included Vitol Energy México partnering with GPA Energy, S.A. de C.V., based in the State of Coahuila;18According to the RPC, GPA Energy was incorporated in 2007 in Monclova, Coahuila,
for the purpose of extracting, drilling, producing, refining, transporting, and trading hydrocarbons, domestically and internationally. This company is part of Grupo Monclova. See: “GPA Energy S.A. de C.V. FME: 5316. M4 Constitución de Sociedad. Documento: 2009Z. Monclova, Coahuila. De fecha 03/04/2007,” RPC, 2018, rpc.economia.gob.mx. Accessed 13 September 2022. together they created the companies Petrolera Amatitlán and Petrolera Miahuapan. It is notable that Vitol owned 10% of the shares of Petrolera Amatitlán but 90% of Petrolera Miahuapan.
Contracts awarded to Vitol in Amatitlán and Miahuapan, Veracruz, were under a sort of public-private joint venture known as the Integrated Exploration and Production Contract (CIEP), enabling the extraction of gas and oil from mature Pemex fields for a period of up to 35 years. It should be noted that by that time Veracruz was undergoing one of the most serious episodes of violence ever seen in Mexico due to strategies deployed by the Veracruz Public Security Secretariat against organized crime, particularly Los Zetas.
The following map uses the geographic coordinates of the Amatitlán and Miahuapan fields, assigned to Vitol in 2014, as published by the National Hydrocarbon Commission (CNH). In the web version, several layers of the map can be selected, including the number and location of clandestine graves found in Veracruz between 2000-20, clandestine taps on Pemex pipelines during the same period, hydrocarbon extraction projects, and construction of energy infrastructure — both from Pemex and private entities — implemented since the 2013 energy reform, as well as security operations deployed by the SSP-Veracruz between 2016-19.
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By May 2021, it was publicly known that Vitol had bribed Pemex officials. Even so, the CNH approved a new Pemex investment plan for the Miahuapan block worth between 14 and 70.5 million USD.
Vitol likely chose to start operations in Veracruz due to its prior experiences in armed conflict zones or where governments are prone to corruption, such as in Iraq, Iran, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), Libya, and Brazil.
The technical annexes in each contract confirm that MTTM Servicios Petroleros and ADT Petroservicios did work at the Amatitlán and Miahuapan fields. This coincidence, however, may suggest that Vitol benefited from information acquired by ADT Petroservicios and MTTM Servicios Petroleros at the AIATG through Roca Ramisa. This may indicate collusion between the companies of Pancho Colorado, Francisco Silva Ramos, and Luis Roca Ramisa and Vitol’s businesses in Veracruz.
Indeed, Vitol had reported to the Mexican Government which officials were bribed. However, the Mexican Government neither disclosed the names of these corrupt officials nor the totality of contracts Vitol has in the country. Empower was able to document that Pemex contracts were not the only ones Vitol was awarded in Mexico. Vitol also has other contracts with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and permits from the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) for the production or sale of electricity and petrochemicals.
We should not overlook the fact that, while companies tied to Colorado and Vitol were securing public contracts with the Veracruz energy sector, the state was experiencing one of the most brutal and violent episodes Mexico had seen since the war on drugs began in 2006. In that sense, the violence exercised by law enforcement to combat crime may have allowed Vitol to engage with Los Zetas in Veracruz and thus gain access to key Pemex officials who were bribed by the criminal group.
While this report attempts to reveal the criminal networks developed in Veracruz, Empower recognizes that only agencies of the Mexican State can provide further clarity. If official investigations are not conducted, it will never be known whether Vitol utilized Los Zetas-controlled companies to secure contracts in the hydrocarbon industry, and the impunity that usually accompanies corruption in Mexico will again prevail.
Also, see the article “Vitol still has contracts with Pemex; its former CEO in Mexico is an associate of a deceased financial operator of Los Zetas.”
