On April 19, 2023, Claudia Patricia Diaz Guillen (49), a close associate of late President Hugo Chavez, was sentenced to 15 years in prison along with her husband, Adrian Jose Velasquez (43), for their roles in a multibillion-dollar bribery and money laundering scheme.

Diaz Guillen and her husband accepted and laundered over $136 million in bribes from co-conspirator Raul Gorrin Belisario, a Venezuelan billionaire businessman who owned the Globovision news network. Gorrin allegedly paid bribes to Diaz, including through Velasquez, to obtain access to purchase bonds from the Venezuelan National Treasury at a favourable exchange rate, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of profit.
The conspiracy involved bulk cash hidden in cardboard boxes, offshore shell companies, Swiss bank accounts, and international wire transfers to purchase multiple private jets and yachts in South Florida.