The Venezuelan businessman who shot to death his 3-year-old son and then himself in Coconut Grove Wednesday was about to be sentenced in federal court in Houston for his role in a federal bribery scheme, according to online court records.
Jose Manuel Gonzalez Testino, 53, also agreed in January to forfeit $14 million to the government, part of a sentencing set for March 24 in the Southern District of Texas.
He was accused of paying bribes to officials with Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company (PDVSA) and its Houston-based subsidiary Citgo Petroleum Corporation from 2012 through 2018 in order to corruptly secure and retain energy and logistics contracts, according to the US Department of Justice.
His case was part of a wide-ranging investigation into bribes connected to payments from Venezuela oil interests.
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Gonzalez pleaded guilty in May 2019 to three charges, including conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and failing to report he controlled a foreign bank account. He was released on a $5 million bond two months after his plea. He had spent nearly a year in federal custody.
Prosecutors in January filed a sentencing recommendation in the case, but it remains under seal, so the public is blocked from knowing if the government recommended prison time.
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Gonzalez’s attorney, Edward Shohat, told NBC 6: “I am confident that the case had no involvement whatever in what happened last night.”
After his 2018 arrest at Miami International Airport, before he could board a flight to Venezuela, a federal agent testified the government had connected Gonzalez to $50 million in foreign bank accounts, condominiums and a house in the Miami area, apartments in Switzerland and in Spain, and a private plane.
The condo where the murder-suicide took place is owned by his younger brother, Walter Alejandro Gonzalez, who is facing a foreclosure suit claiming he owes nearly $3 million on the unit at the Grove at Grand Bay, according to Miami-Dade court records.
The complaint claims Walter Gonzalez stopped paying the 2019 mortgage seven months after obtaining the loan. The 4,800-square-foot property, purchased for nearly $6 million in 2016, is listed online as being for sale for $9 million.
