The Ministry of Finance of Nicaragua authorized the issuance of state bonds worth $22.2 million as compensation to the company Distribuidora Nicaragüense de Petróleos SA (DNP Petronic) for transferring its inventory to the state. This represents a new way of siphoning money from Nicaraguans, who have endured excessively high fuel prices for years—a business that once belonged to the Ortega-Murillo family.
Analysts agree that this is part of the Ortega-Murillo family’s corruption, as DNP was nationalized in December 2019 after being sanctioned by the United States and accused of money laundering. The fuel company was managed by Yadira Leets Marín, the former wife of Rafael Ortega Murillo, the eldest son of the presidential couple. Leets Marín left Nicaragua with her two biological children in mid-2022, and her last known whereabouts were in the United States.
On Tuesday, December 17, the ministerial agreement 005-2024 was published in La Gaceta, in which the Minister of Finance, Bruno Gallardo, authorized the incorporation and registration of $22,237,121.00 as domestic public debt of the Republic of Nicaragua.
These bonds will be issued over a three-year term with an annual interest rate of 4.17%, starting from their issuance date, and will be paid in U.S. dollars.
Economist Enrique Sáenz described the bond payment as “another mafia-style act by the ruling family.” Meanwhile, a lawyer requesting anonymity characterized it as “yet another scam” by the dictatorship. “In addition to nationalizing a sanctioned company, now we have to pay for it. It’s undoubtedly a scam against all Nicaraguans,” the lawyer stated.
Sáenz emphasized that “the ruling mafia seeks to normalize the confusion between the private interests of the family and public interests, turning the state into an instrument to continue committing fraud and ensuring their impunity.”
From a public company to one managed by the Ortega-Murillo family
DNP was founded by the foreign consortium Glencore in 1999. The government of Arnoldo Alemán granted it a concession for fuel distribution for ten years, and in 2009, the Ortega government did not renew the concession. Instead, it took over DNP’s functions, supported by Venezuelan cooperation.
Both DNP and the network of gas stations were placed under the control of members of the presidential family. Rafael Ortega Murillo was in charge of Inversiones Zanzíbar, which was sanctioned in 2019, while his wife Yadira Leets oversaw DNP’s operations.
After the U.S. sanctions, DNP’s service stations changed their names and brands, gradually reopening to the public. That same year, the regime nationalized DNP with the approval of Law 1013, the Sovereign Assurance and Fuel Supply Guarantee Law, which declared that all of the company’s inventories were of “sovereign security and national interest.”
It was also established that the inventories would be operated and managed by the institutions or companies designated by the state through the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM). By that time, DNP had a network of 69 service stations across the country and controlled 30% of petroleum product imports.
“That was a legal trick to ensure that DNP could continue operating despite the sanctions imposed by the United States,” explains the lawyer.
The recently published ministerial agreement indicates that the payment of the compensation of over $22 million is based on a legal opinion from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), dated October 8, 2024. The opinion concludes that the transfer of DNP’s inventories, when the company was nationalized, created a “payment obligation” on the part of the state.
Economist Sáenz explains that “with DNP, which was owned by the state, Ortega suddenly, through a mafioso magic trick, turned it into a private company, owned by his family, under the management of one of his sons. From there, they squeezed the pockets of Nicaraguans, businesses, and consumers, imposing fuel price gouging.”
“Now, they transform the company once again into state ownership, but fraudulently, as they self-approve a payment of $22 million. While they preach about the dollarization and force the population to conduct transactions in córdobas, they shamelessly state in the ministerial agreement that the payment will be made in U.S. dollars,” the specialist explains.
Price gouging, another theft by the dictatorship
Similarly, the dictatorship has been robbing Nicaraguans for over two years by taking advantage of fuel price gouging. “Hundreds of millions of dollars have been pocketed from this business,” Sáenz comments.
In April 2022, the regime froze fuel prices amid a surge that pushed the price of a barrel of oil above $100. However, since the end of that same year, crude oil prices began to drop and are now worth less than $80.
Instead of passing on the price decrease to consumers, the regime has kept around $236 million generated by the price gouging, which is the margin between the purchase price and the selling price.
Initially, it was speculated that this “margin” would be used to pay off the $200 million loan granted in 2022 by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to cover the fuel subsidy when the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the reference price for Nicaragua, spiked.
However, with the decrease in crude oil prices, it was not necessary to use the entire credit; only $85.80 million was used. Although the margin would have already covered this amount three times over, to date, only $20 million has been paid.
In addition to the regime, other beneficiaries of the price gouging include private companies involved in the hydrocarbon market.