Oil Executive Files $100 Million Lawsuit Against Citgo After Being Held in Venezuela

One of the Citgo oil executives who was held for nearly five years in Venezuela has sued his company for $100 million, alleging it conspired in his detention and then abandoned him and his family as he wasted away in horrific prison conditions for a crime he didn’t commit.

Tomeu Vadell was one of six executives who worked for Houston-based Citgo when they were lured to Venezuela right before Thanksgiving in 2017 to attend a meeting at the headquarters of the company’s parent, the Venezuelan-run-oil giant known as PDVSA. Once there, they were hauled from a Caracas conference room by masked security agents.

A Venezuelan judge later convicted the six executives of embezzlement and sentenced them to between eight years and 13 years in prison in a trial marred by delays and irregularities.

Read the source article at abcnews.go.com