Wales gas Project Director is linked to corruption scandal in Venezuela

Apr 08, 2026 News

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By Davina Bagot  

(Kaieteur News) – As Guyana races to establish itself as a modern petro-state, the apparent lack of vetting regarding the individuals managing its most piece of critical infrastructure ever pursued presents a glaring contradiction.

In this article, Kaieteur News exposes the tainted track record of the Project Director, Ruben Figuera currently employed by Lindsayca, the company hired to construct a Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility and 300-megawatt power plant for Guyana.

The project is already facing delays and cost overruns as the contract award to Lindsayca/CH4 continues to raise eyebrows.

From frozen bank accounts in Andorra to securing a top management role in a U.S.-backed, billion-dollar mega-project— now likely to secure Phase Two of the development, the scandal remains either invisible or ignored by local authorities.

Guyana’s landmark Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project at Wales, West Bank Demerara, is championed by the Guyanese government and actively advocated by the U.S. State Department as a cornerstone of the nation’s economic and energy transformation. However, a troubling shadow looms over the billion-dollar initiative regarding Ruben Figuera, the project director representing Lindsayca Inc., whose past is inextricably linked to severe corruption scandals in neighboring Venezuela.

Before leading operations for the U.S.-based contractor in Guyana, Figuera served as a high-ranking Venezuelan government official within ex-president, Nicolás Maduro’s regime. His tenure at the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, was notably marked by his powerful position presiding over lucrative joint ventures between Venezuela and the Russian energy giant, Gazprom.

Bribery, money-laundering and frozen bank accounts

Investigative records and international financial probes reveal a stark conflict of interest during his time in Caracas. While overseeing the PDVSA-Gazprom partnerships, Figuera was instrumental in facilitating multimillion-dollar contracts to Lindsayca Inc. The transition from awarding these massive contracts to Lindsayca as a public official, to later emerging as a top executive for the very same private company, highlights a brazen “revolving door” scenario fueled by illicit kickbacks.

During the height of the Venezuelan oil crisis, international authorities began tracking illicit financial flows bled from PDVSA. Investigations into his tenure revealed that he received massive kickbacks tied directly to the Lindsayca-Gazprom contracts. The money trail ultimately led to the European principality of Andorra, a jurisdiction historically favored as a secretive banking haven. Authorities in Andorra subsequently froze millions of dollars in Figuera’s bank accounts, citing overwhelming evidence of bribery and money laundering.

Despite this well-documented history of financial crimes and his integral role in the Maduro regime’s plundering of state assets, Figuera managed to seamlessly reinvent himself in the private sector. Today, he operates freely in Guyana as the Project Director for Lindsayca, overseeing the very infrastructure project the U.S. State Department views as a beacon for regional energy security.

Figuera’s role in Guyana

Kaieteur News understands that Figuera is directing operations at the Wales site, operating as the public face of the project’s on-the-ground execution. He previously updated the press on progress of the site and provided labour statistics, boasting that “some 75 per cent of the current workforce are Guyanese.”

He has also been a primary executive addressing the multimillion-dollar financial claims Lindsayca filed against the Guyanese government over unexpected soil stabilization works.

This raises serious accountability questions for the Guyanese government. The Gas-to-Energy Task Force, led by Winston Brassington, awarded the initial infrastructure mega-contract to the consortium featuring Lindsayca. Was any substantive due diligence performed on Lindsayca and its executive leadership before entrusting them with Guyana’s most critical development project?

Sources close to the process also revealed that the geopolitical implications are equally troubling. Official advocacy request documents submitted to the U.S. Departments of Commerce and State reveal heavy diplomatic lobbying for the GTE project.

The big question remains: Is Washington knowingly endorsing an initiative whose daily execution is managed by a former Maduro-era official whose illicit wealth was seized in European banks?

Will the bleeding continue?

Despite these glaring red flags, the operation continues to expand unabated. On 31^st March, the government accepted bids for Phase Two of the Gas-to-Energy project. Astonishingly, Lindsayca was permitted to submit a bid for this massive second-phase expansion, despite its lack of experience and glaring mishandling of Phase One.

In the official bid document submitted by Lindsayca for GTE Phase Two, and seen by this newspaper, Ruben Figuera is once again prominently listed as the project director.

The Trojan Horse: How Lindsayca Swapped American Exceptionalism for Venezuelan Corrupt Officials to Lead their Project

Sources indicated to this newspaper that the presence of Figuera at the helm of this mega-project is not a mere oversight.

Official documents obtained by this newspaper from the initial GTE Phase I bid reveal that what the consortium presented to the Guyanese government was vastly different from the entity operating today.

During the vetting process, the consortium leaned heavily on an image of “American exceptionalism.” The documents show that an American company, Lindsayca Solutions, and its principals were listed as the Project Lead. The organizational chart submitted to win the contract was 80% American, projecting a facade of strict U.S. corporate governance and reliability to secure the billion-dollar deal.

However, once the ink was dry and the initial funds were secured, the facade crumbled. By January 2023, shortly after the Guyanese government issued a massive down payment of approximately $150 million for GTE I, the Lindsayca-CH4 consortium began to aggressively morph. In a swift manoeuvring of corporate structure, two of the original four companies that made up the trusted consortium were kicked out: the primary American Engineering Firm and the local civil contractor hired for vital local works.

Fast forward to 2025, and the Trojan Horse strategy reached its final stage. Lindsayca utilized the Dispute Adjudication Board (DAB) to successfully remove its remaining primary partner, CH4.

With the original vetted consortium entirely hollowed out, Lindsayca installed Ruben Figuera as the new Project Director. The American-led team that the government believed it had hired was effectively replaced by a leadership structure heavily influenced by former Venezuelan officials.

The deception is poised to continue. This outlet has received confidential documents detailing the “Key Personnel Proposed” for the upcoming Phase Two of the project (GTE II). At the very top of that list, Ruben Figuera is firmly entrenched as “GTE PROJECT DIRECTOR.”

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• corruption, Lindsayca Inc., natural gas liquids, Project Director, Rubén Figuera

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