TOMEU VADELL

One of the six oil executives with a Texas-based company who was imprisoned five years in Venezuela is suing his company for $100 million.

Former Citgo employee Tomeu Vadell and his family filed a $100 million lawsuit on Tuesday in Harris County court against Citgo Petroleum Corporation, claiming he was used as a political pawn and abandoned by the company during his five-year incarceration and torture in Venezuela.

Six American oil executives jailed in Venezuela more than three years ago on corruption charges have been granted house arrest in a gesture of goodwill toward the Biden administration as it reviews its policy toward the politically turbulent South American country.

(Posted on Twitter by Jorge Arreaza/Venezuela's Foreign Ministry via AP File)The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on the Venezuelan judge and prosecutor behind the conviction on corruption charges of six American oil executives. The six employees of Houston-based Citgo were lured to Caracas just before Thanksgiving in 2017 on the pretense of attending a business meeting. “The United States remains committed to protecting its citizens and targeting those who contribute to the illegitimate Maduro regime’s usurpation of power in Venezuela.”The six men are Tomeu Vadell, José Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo, Gustavo Cardenas and José Pereira. “We just spent a fourth Christmas without our loved one, Tomeu,” the Vadell family said in a statement. “It’s sad to see more suffering come of all this, but these sanctions are in direct consequence of the judge and prosecutor condemning innocent men and prolonging their hostage-taking.”

(Courtesy of John Pereira via AP)CARACAS – The family of a Houston-based Citgo oil executive convicted and ordered to prison in Venezuela alongside five others appealed directly to President Nicolás Maduro on Friday for mercy. “Our purpose for this letter is not to enter into legal tirades about the case,” the letter says. The so-called Citgo 6 are employees of Houston-based Citgo refining company, which is owned by Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. Judge Lorena Cornielles, who oversaw the trial, did not respond to a letter from The Associated Press seeking permission to observe. Pereira's family said in the letter that he suffers from at least seven chronic health problems including diabetes and back trouble that requires surgery.

Jesus Loreto, an attorney representing Tomeu Vadell, one of six U.S. oil executives jailed for three years in Venezuela, shows a letter written by Vadell, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. The so-called Citgo 6 are employees of Houston-based Citgo refining company, which is owned by Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. Despite his circumstances, Vadell held out hope. With encouragement from his family, Vadell broke his silence, taking a risk relatives said was necessary. During his 35-year career with PDVSA and Citgo, Vadell ended up running a refinery in Lake Charles and then became vice president of refining.