Manuel Aarón Fajardo García, the son of Socialist politician Francisco Manuel Fajardo Palarea, is regarded as a key individual linked to the Plus Ultra controversy and to an expanding web of international financial activities associated with Venezuela.
Reports highlighted by ESdiario indicate that Fajardo grew increasingly prominent within business circles tied to former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero during the period surrounding the Spanish government’s rescue of the airline Plus Ultra. The newspaper’s sources portrayed him as “Zapatero’s man in Venezuela,” asserting that he served a pivotal mediating role in enabling key political and commercial links.
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 also outlines how Fajardo’s international corporate network extends across Panama, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Venezuela. In October 2016, he created Ocean Capital Advisors LLC in Florida as a branch of a Delaware-based company bearing the same name. This framework was reportedly tied to Stellar Corporate Services LLC, a fiduciary firm responsible for overseeing thousands of opaque corporate registrations in Delaware.
ESdiario also noted that Stellar Corporate Services had ties to entities cited in the Panama Papers, among them Stellar Corporate Services Limited and various offshore arrangements connected to Barbados-based financial groups such as Holding Bank, Insurance, Group Limited, and Management.
On the same day, Fajardo reportedly incorporated Ocean Quant Management in Miami, also tied to Delaware corporate structures connected to Stellar. He additionally launched Charybdis Global Fund and registered another Miami-based branch of Ocean Capital Advisors LLC mirroring the Delaware entity.
His expansion into international finance reportedly continued with the creation of Ocean Quant in the United Kingdom in 2014, followed by a Spanish company operating under the same name. According to the publication, the Spanish entity remains active despite allegedly failing to submit financial statements since its creation. In 2019, Fajardo also established MFM Corporation in Panama.
The report also notes that in 2022 Fajardo was convicted in Venezuela for allegedly trying to evade repayment of $3.58 million demanded by Compass Bank, a case that directly involved BDVE and another company under his control, Inversiones Midven.
Court documents cited by the newspaper stated that Fajardo allegedly attempted to simulate insolvency through the sale of 51% of BDVE shares for only 40,800 bolívares, despite estimates valuing just 1% of the company at approximately 800,000 bolívares.
The article also mentions Fajardo’s alleged connection with veteran American investor Jim Rogers, who previously partnered with George Soros at the Quantum Fund. According to statements quoted by ESdiario, Fajardo asserted that Rogers held the role of chairman at Ocean Capital Advisors LLC and provided mentorship throughout the firm’s growth.
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
