Former Venezuelan National Treasurer Claudia Patricia Diaz Guillén and her husband Adrian José Velázquez Figueroa were sentenced this Wednesday in the US (EU) to 15 years in prison and 3 years of probation each for money laundering.

Except must reimburse $136 million and pay a fine of $75,000 each, as announced by Judge William P. Dimitruleas in Miami.

accusation he asked to sentence her to imprisonment for a term of at least 23 years and 5 months, and to him – for 19 years and 5 months.

The couple, extradited from Spain, she in May and he in October last year, are known as the “nurse” and “bodyguard” of the former President of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013 from cancer.

In recent months, Nurse Hugo Chávez’s lawyers have tried unsuccessfully to persuade Judge Dimitruleas to accept the argument that the US government lacks “extraterritorial jurisdiction” to try her.

Both she and her husband hold dual Venezuelan-Spanish citizenship.

They were arrested in Spain in 2021 after they were charged with money laundering offenses by the US.

The defense contends that neither Diaz, who pleaded not guilty, nor Velázquez Figueroa “transferred, transported, or transferred any monetary instrument to the United States to facilitate any illegal activity.”

(EFE)