Atahualpa Mehrer Cobarrubia, another of the Venezuelans who seeks to disappear from the Internet his past linked to state corruption in Venezuela

By Sam Souto

Atahualpa José Mehrer Cobarrubia is a Venezuelan connected to a bribery scheme in his country, particularly in the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security (IVSS).

People familiar with the matter say that Mehrer Cobarrubia received bribes in Venezuela from Daniel Rangel Barón, Jesús Mantilla and Carlos Rotondaro, for more than 500 billion dollars.

The first money laundering operations were carried out from the beginning of Carlos Rotondaro as president of the IVSS through the companies Continental Medica and RISMED Dialisis, which received preferential dollars through the National Commission for Foreign Exchange Administration (CADIVI), a defunct Venezuelan official entity in charge of the granting of preferential currencies.

Atahualpa José Mehrer Cobarrubia used his son Walter Mehrer to receive money orders made by Daniel Rangel Barón, Jesús Mantilla and Carlos Rotondaro to launder them in companies registered in the United States and Curaçao, dedicated to the area of ​​imports, oil and energy, in which The companies Petro Industrial Bv, LLC and Petro Industrial Bv Corp were listed, which also received contracts from PDVSA.

Petro Industrial Bv LLC and Petro Industrial Bv Corp overbilled millions and millions of dollars not only in the IVSS but also in contracts with PDVSA; PDVSA and Citgo as main clients, as shown in a leaked document:

Atahualpa Mehrer Cobarrubia and his son Walter Mehrer used a sophisticated scheme to launder and hide money obtained at the cost of the misfortune of Venezuelans. His companies and operations have been perpetuated until today.

Atahualpa José Mehrer and his son reside and lead a luxurious life in the city of Miami, in the United States.

The Mehrer Cobarrubias are other Venezuelans who have approached companies that promise to manage their reputation on the Internet. One of those companies is Ealixir, which according to its website, was founded in Italy in 2018.

It was through the Ealixir Team, a team that manages the accounts of the company’s clients, that the manager of the Italian company Amelia Bianchi contacted the online news site nuevaprensaamerica.com , arguing that information published by that website is allegedly unfounded and requesting the “deindexation” of the article and “anonymization” of the information on the Mehrer Cobarrubias.

This is, once again, another attack on press freedom, in which people linked to corruption cases in Venezuela try to censor information on the Internet that they find uncomfortable, but that reflects the truth about the events in which they have incursion state.