Crypto for a Dictator – Carl Vonderau – July 2025 Newsletter

Hello from San Diego.

Crypto for a Dictator

Can cryptocurrency be the instrument to save a country? Gabriel Jiménez thought it could save Venezuela. Boy was he wrong. Here is his story.

In 2018 the prices of oil and the local Venezuelan currency, the Bolívar, were collapsing. Most citizens were trying to protect their wealth by illegally buying dollars. Nicolás Maduro, the dictator of Venezuela, thought a new cryptocurrency could evade U.S. sanctions by operating outside the traditional U.S. banking system.

Gabriel Jiménez was a local tech entrepreneur. He’d campaigned against Maduro but was intrigued enough to talk to him about a new currency. A van took Jiménez and some American colleagues to a military installation to speak with the president. Jiménez was expecting impressive surroundings when speaking with the president. In the office where they met, the air conditioner barely functioned and the vice president wore a tracksuit. Outside, an old Camaro was parked in the courtyard next to a child’s trampoline.

Still, Jiménez liked the idea because the currency would not be controlled by the government and would float freely like Bitcoin. By being part of the launch team he would have some control over how it was launched and used. He jumped onboard. His startup company devoted all its resources to creating the currency.

But this was Venezuela, and Maduro wanted to control everything. He used all Jiménez’s work to create own Petro cryptocurrency. Against Jiménez’s wishes, it was backed by oil reserves. That made it look like a bond, and US companies and investors were forbidden to invest in Venezuelan bonds. When Jiménez resisted sharing information with the Ministry of Finance, the vice president called him a traitor and Jiménez thought he might be dragged to the infamous Helicoide, a mall that had been converted into a prison.

Maduro’s government made Jiménez’s company do all the work and hired a Russian firm to manage the launch. Then Jiménez had to publicly sign an agreement that limited him to just being a sales agent instead of an owner of the technology. It was all done in a ceremonial room in the presidential palace in front of the cabinet and TV cameras. Maduro had publicly stolen all of his work.

The new currency was supposed to allow the government to pay for supplies, and to be freely transferrable. President Trump got wind of it and prohibited any U.S. company from accepting the Petro. A congresswoman asked that Treasury Dept. to investigate Jiménez. It was worse in Venezuela. The Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly asked that Jiménez be charged with treason. He was in danger of being arrested and had to flee to the U.S.

Where once he had owned a small company, Jiménez had no work authorization and no money in the U.S. He lived with his father, then on the couch of a chief executive for a crypto start-up in San Francisco. So much for his dream of helping Venezuela.

So what happened to the Petro? It had none of the properties that Jiménez had designed and is little used.

 

 

What I’m Working on Now

My next crime novel takes place in Cleveland in 1969. I grew up in Rocky River, a western suburb. To write it I’m going back to my memories and researching images of what Rocky River and downtown Cleveland looked like. I’m also reading up on the anti-war protests that gripped the country. If anyone would like to help me with impressions of Cleveland protests and Cleveland crime at that time, or what some of the areas and buildings looked like, I’d love it.

Please respond to this email if you’d like to work with me on this book.

 

Summer Book Clubs

Speaking of Rocky River, I had a terrific time at Jill Armstrong’s book club. She and I went to high school together there and she now lives in Chelsea, Michigan. The library in Chelsea was voted the best small library in the country in 2008 and has my book on its shelves. What an honor! Her book club asked some great questions and we had a great time.

Do you have a book club? If you would like me to talk at your club or some other event about Saving Myles or the writing life, please respond to this email or simply email me at carlvonderauauthor@gmail.com. If you are close by, I can come to your meeting. If not, we can talk virtually. I really love to do these, so don’t hesitate to ask.

 

TV Shows

My wife and I are always looking for a good TV series to watch. We’ve discovered two in the last few weeks.

The Pitt is about a hospital in Pittsburgh. I don’t normally like hospital dramas, but this one pulled no punches. It takes place in a single day at a crowded hospital in Pittsburgh. All right, no hospital has as many things go wrong as this one does in one day. Nevertheless, the outcomes and personalities are realistic and compelling. And many of the outcomes were not happy. My wife and I both had tears in our eyes at during of the episodes. It has been renewed for another season starting in January.

 

I was surprised that I liked the PBS series, Patience. The star is a woman on the autism spectrum. That seems to be very popular character trait these days. In this one she has unique concentration and an ability to connect seemingly unrelated pieces of puzzles and events. The detective who works with her is extremely sensitive to her vulnerable personality. This series has also been renewed for another year.

A Great Deal on Saving Myles

 

There is a special on the Kindle version on Amazon. It is available for $1.99 through July.

Grab A Copy

Until next time,
Carl