Wendy Siegelman and Ann Marlowe mapped the network of companies and vehicles associated to Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, and its ultimate controling company, SCL Group Limited. It’s terrific work, well worth studying.

We then have this:

Liam O’Hare on the deep connections between Cambridge Analytica’s parent company Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL Group) and the Conservative Party and military establishment, ‘Board members include an array of Lords, Tory donors, ex-British army officers and defense contractors. This is scandal that cuts to the heart of the British establishment.’

So I shall add the Venezuela Connection, given that every major corruption scandal around the world these days has an angle touching Hugo Chavez’s socialist paradise.

Cambridge Analytica’s Alexander Nix incorporated SCL Elections Limited in the UK, on 17 October 2012. On 7 February 2013, SCL Elections Limited appointed Patrick Teroerde as company director. My particular interest on Teroerde comes from his involvement in the illegal acquisition of Venezuela’s largest newspaper: Ultimas Noticias.

This manoeuvre appears to be an elaborate way to hide Cadena Capriles’ new controlling party. The head of the board, Carlos Acosta Lopez, is/has been a partner of Juan Carlos Escotet (chavista banker owner of BANESCO) who in turn is/has been a partner of Michu since Bancentro days; Rene Brillemburg is Michu’s nephew, Juan Isidro Señor Boguña is VP of a consultancy owned by Juan Antonio Giner (advisor of Michu), while Lepage and Rendon are employees of Victor Vargas.

Teroerde partner of some of Venezuela’s most corrupt individuals and fronting for OFAC-designated narco Tareck el Aissami in purchase of Ultimas Noticias.

Delcy Rodriguez, current Chair of illegitimate Venezuelan Constituent Assembly and -at the time- Minister of Communications, relayed in a private encounter that Tareck el Aissami was the new owner of Ultimas Noticias. This was corroborated more recently by Rafael Ramirez (note mention to Vicepresident below), former Minister of Energy and CEO of PDVSA (now disgraced & on the run), decrying censorhip at Ultimas Noticias:

Who would’ve thought the all powerful CEO of PDVSA was censored by newspaper controlled by another chavista…

Patrick Teroerde was in a meeting in Caracas on 24 October 2013 to “purchase” -through proxy Jose Gregorio Darbisi- Ultimas Noticias. Teroerde agreed to appointment of new execs, formation of new board, price, and everything proposed by selling parties. Darbisi is not an executive, much less a media / newspaper person or an investor, but a former National Guard Lieutenant.

Teroerde accepted appointment to new board of proxies of Victor Vargas (owner of BOD), and of Juan Carlos Escotet (owner of BANESCO), the two most corrupt bankers of the chavista era. Miguel Angel Capriles Lopez, representing self and rest of parties who gained control of Ultimas Noticias through illegal and fraudulent means, also got proxies in the new board set up by buyer Teroerde. It is almost certain that Robert Hanson’s and Patrick Teroerde’s involvement in the deal came through the polo network, in which Victor Vargas is a known figure.

While all of that was happening in Venezuela, Teroerde was a partner to Alexander Nix in SCL Elections Ltd. In fact, SCL Elections service address was Robert Hanson’s (Hanson Asset Management Ltd) office in London’s Grosvenor Place.

SCL Elections Ltd held, according to Wendy Siegelman and Ann Marlowe graph, a 19% ownership of Cambridge Analytica LLC, in turn a Delaware-incorporated vehicle owned by Steve Bannon.

That means that briefly, considering Teroerde’s resignation from SCL Elections Ltd on Feb. 2014, Teroerde was a partner to Bannon, along with Nix.

The relationship between Tareck el Aissami and drug trafficking has been known since March 2011, when colleague Casto Ocando managed to interview Walid Makled, a Venezuelan drug trafficker charged with shipping tonnes of cocaine to the USA.

How could Teroerde not have known el Aissami’s association with Makled? What sort of KYC / due diligence did Teroerde do before embarking in his Venezuelan adventure? Tareck el Aissami is not only involved in drug trafficking, he also facilitated Venezuelan identities and passports to terrorists and money launderers connected to Hezbollah.

In a new twist in the saga, the asset “purchased” by Teroerde & Hanson (newspaper Ultimas Noticias), disappeared in a mist of offshore companies under their control. As I have said earlier, is one thing to front for corrupt Venezuelans, quite another for wanted drug traffickers (also from Venezuela).