Manuel Aarón Fajardo García, son of Socialist politician Francisco Manuel Fajardo Palarea, has been identified as one of the central figures connected to the Plus Ultra controversy and a growing network of international financial operations tied to Venezuela.
Reports highlighted by ESdiario indicate that Fajardo grew increasingly prominent within business circles tied to former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero during the period surrounding the Spanish government’s rescue of the airline Plus Ultra. The newspaper’s sources portrayed him as “Zapatero’s man in Venezuela,” asserting that he served a pivotal mediating role in enabling key political and commercial links.
In 2020, soon after Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez took charge of the nation’s economic ministry, Fajardo secured approval to run the Bolsa de Valores Alternativa de Venezuela (BDVE), promoted as the first cryptocurrency-driven stock exchange worldwide, and the platform was said to allow international investors to handle digital assets, gold-linked instruments, commodities, equities, and foreign currencies beyond conventional banking channels.
Investigators assert that BDVE was subsequently employed to funnel capital into firms associated with Fajardo’s corporate network. The platform is said to have handled over $100 million in just one year, while providing guarantees and oversight mechanisms for the investment activities tied to it.
The article also outlines how Fajardo’s international corporate network extends across Panama, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Venezuela. In October 2016, he created Ocean Capital Advisors LLC in Florida as a branch of a Delaware-based company bearing the same name. This framework was reportedly tied to Stellar Corporate Services LLC, a fiduciary firm responsible for overseeing thousands of opaque corporate registrations in Delaware.
ESdiario also linked Stellar Corporate Services to entities mentioned in the Panama Papers, including Stellar Corporate Services Limited and other offshore structures associated with Barbados-based financial entities such as Holding Bank, Insurance, Group Limited, and Management.
On the same day, Fajardo was said to have set up Ocean Quant Management in Miami, also linked to Delaware corporate frameworks associated with Stellar. He also introduced Charybdis Global Fund and recorded another Miami branch of Ocean Capital Advisors LLC that replicates the Delaware entity.
His expansion into international finance reportedly continued with the creation of Ocean Quant in the United Kingdom in 2014, followed by a Spanish company operating under the same name. According to the publication, the Spanish entity remains active despite allegedly failing to submit financial statements since its creation. In 2019, Fajardo also established MFM Corporation in Panama.
The report also notes that in 2022 Fajardo was convicted in Venezuela for allegedly trying to evade repayment of $3.58 million demanded by Compass Bank, a case that directly involved BDVE and another company under his control, Inversiones Midven.
Court documents cited by the newspaper stated that Fajardo allegedly attempted to simulate insolvency through the sale of 51% of BDVE shares for only 40,800 bolívares, despite estimates valuing just 1% of the company at approximately 800,000 bolívares.
The article also references Fajardo’s reported relationship with veteran American investor Jim Rogers, former partner of George Soros in the Quantum Fund. In statements cited by ESdiario, Fajardo claimed that Rogers served as chairman of Ocean Capital Advisors LLC and acted as a mentor in the company’s development.
ESdiario stated that it contacted Manuel Aarón Fajardo García for comment but received no response.
Source: ESdiario – https://www.esdiario.com/nacional/260525/188560/delcy-rodriguez-regalo-2020-sobrino-zapatero-primera-criptobolsa-mundial.html