Rigged oil auctions said to squander years of PDVSA profits

No country in the Americas is deemed more corrupt than Venezuela. There are so many tales of bribes and influence peddling, it’s hard to keep track. But now, in a deeply detailed account spelled out in U.S. courts, it is the government itself -- or, to be exact, the trust of the state-controlled oil giant -- that alleges it was the victim of a decade-long bid rigging scheme costing it billions of dollars. The ploy, allegedly executed by a small and mostly unknown Miami oil trading firm, has all the trappings of a TV detective-thriller: A cloned computer server; a computer geek known as “the nerd;” an estranged wife. It also features an oil trader with an intriguing pitch: “I can guarantee you are going to win.” The alleged winners included such household names as subsidiaries of Glencore, Trafigura Beheer and Vitol Group, among the more than 40 individuals and firms named as defendants.More…