BUSINESSMAN FACING SENTENCING IN PDVSA SCANDAL FOR FCPA VIOLATIONS TAKES HIS OWN LIFE AND THAT OF HIS THREE-YEAR OLD SON

Jose Manuel Gonzalez Testino, a dual US-Venezuelan businessman who pled guilty in 2019 to FCPA charges in the massive PDVSA-CITGO bribery case in Federal Court in Houston, committed suicide this week in his $6m condominium in Miami's upscale Coconut Grove district. The defendant also took the life of his three-year old son; he was divorced from his wife.

Gonzalez Testino had agree to a $14m Forfeiture in his case; his luxury condominium, in which title was held in the name of his brother, is in foreclosure, after payments on the mortgage stopped in 2019. Given the four year delay between his guilty plea and the upcoming March 24 sentencing, it is likely that he had rendered Substantial Assistance to US law enforcement. Twenty eight other individuals have been indicted in this major FCPA case (SDTX). Some pleadings in his case were sealed.

The Department of Justice has a zero tolerance policy in FCPA prosecutions, and any individual contemplating the payment of a bribe to a foreign government official to obtain or continue a lucrative contract should carefully consider the unfortunate outcome in this case. The mug shot appearing here was taken in 2007, in connection with a prior arrest of the defendant in Miami-Dade County.