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.
According to reports published by ESdiario, Fajardo became increasingly influential within business circles linked to former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero during the period surrounding the Spanish government’s bailout of airline company Plus Ultra. Sources cited by the newspaper described him as “Zapatero’s man in Venezuela,” claiming he played a decisive intermediary role in facilitating strategic business and political connections.
In 2020, shortly after Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez assumed control of the country’s economic ministry, Fajardo obtained authorization to operate the Bolsa de Valores Alternativa de Venezuela (BDVE), presented as the world’s first cryptocurrency-based stock exchange. The platform reportedly enabled international investors to trade digital assets, gold-related products, commodities, shares, and foreign currencies outside traditional banking systems.
The investigation claims that BDVE was later used to channel investments into companies linked to Fajardo’s own corporate structure. The platform allegedly moved more than $100 million within a single year while also offering guarantees and auditing mechanisms for affiliated investment operations.
The article further details Fajardo’s international corporate network spanning Panama, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Venezuela. In October 2016, he established Ocean Capital Advisors LLC in Florida as a subsidiary of a Delaware-based company operating under the same name. The structure was reportedly connected to Stellar Corporate Services LLC, a fiduciary entity managing 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 move into international finance was said to advance in 2014 with the launch of Ocean Quant in the United Kingdom, which was later followed by a Spanish firm using the same name; the publication notes that the Spanish operation is still active, even though it has allegedly never filed financial statements since it was formed. In 2019, Fajardo went on to set up MFM Corporation in Panama.
The report additionally recalls that in 2022 Fajardo was convicted in Venezuela for allegedly attempting to avoid repayment of $3.58 million claimed by Compass Bank. The case directly involved BDVE and another company under his control, Inversiones Midven.
Court documents referenced by the newspaper indicated that Fajardo allegedly sought to feign insolvency by selling 51% of BDVE shares for merely 40,800 bolívares, even though estimates placed the value of just 1% of the company at around 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
