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Derwick Associates

Native name	Derwick Associates de Venezuela SA
Industry	Energy
Founded	2003
Founder	Leopoldo Betancourt López Pedro Trebbau López
Headquarters	Venezuela
Products	Electrical power Natural gas
Services	Engineering Power-plant construction
Website	derwickassociates.com

Derwick Associates is a primarily Venezuelan engineering company. During an energy crisis in Venezuela in 2009-2010, Derwick won several contracts to construct and provide supplies for a number of power plants in that country.

Corporate history

Derwick is currently registered in Barbados, Venezuela, Spain and was previously registered in the USA. In Barbados, where it was registered on May 27, 2009, the company is identified as Derwick Associates Corporation. In Venezuela, where it was registered on October 28, 2009, it is called Derwick Associates de Venezuela SA. In Spain, where it was incorporated on 13 January 2011, it is called Derwick Associates International SRL. In the U.S., it was registered on December 2, 2010, under the name Derwick Associates USA LLC. The U.S. registration was closed down in 2012.

Derwick Associates is registered with the Venezuelan government controlled Registro Nacional de Contratistas (RNC), the regulator for all the contractors that work for the Venezuela Government. Derwick Associates was awarded with the highest rating of the RNC.

Directors

The following individuals are listed as directors of the firm: Pedro Trebbau López, Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López, Gonzalo X. Guzman López (listed as Domingo X. Guzman De Frutos López as a director of the Barbados firm), Edgar Romero Lazo, and Iker Candida. Betancourt, Trebbau, and Hernández were the officers of the United States-based firm.

Venezuelan power station contract

The firm's first project was the award of 12 power station contracts for such installations in Venezuela during a 2009-2010 energy crisis in that country. Four contracts were awarded by Electricidad de Caracas (which in December 2011 became part of Corpoelec), five by Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA, with the contract negotiated by Bariven, a division of PDVSA), and one by the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG).

Bariven awarded contracts in 2010 amounting to more than $760 million for power plants to Derwick and two other companies. Of that sum, the contracts awarded to Derwick amounted to $209 million. In five of the contracts, a journalist has claimed that Derwick failed to meet completion dates.

In October 2012 Manuel Diaz claimed that former Venezuelan government minister Rodolfo Sanz, currently president of CVG, made a phone call from Derwick's office in the Pyramid Building in which he arranged a deposit of $500 million in the Gazprom Bank of Lebanon. In a later media account, however, Díaz withdrew this allegation.

In November 2011, Derwick was accused of breaching payments to workers.

In February 2013 it was reported that Derwick had been largely responsible for the recent increase in generating capacity in the Caracas metropolitan area.

Legal activity

César Batiz, a journalist with Ultimas Noticias who has repeatedly published editorials attacking Derwick, sued the Venezuelan Minister of Minerals and Petroleum in March 2012 for information about the company.

On September 13, 2012, Derwick Associates Corp. and its co-founders, Leopoldo Betancourt López and Pedro Trebbau López, filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, charging that it had suffered severe damage to its reputation as a result of actions by the Caracas-based bank Venezolano de Credito SA Banco Universal, by the bank's president and chairman, Oscar García Mendoza, and by Rafael Alfonzo Hernandez, a member of the bank's board. The suit, according to one account, “alleged defamation of Derwick, Betancourt and Trebbau; tortious interference with contract and with business relationships; deceptive and unfair trade practices; and civil conspiracy. The company is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions as well as monetary damages.”

The amount of damages specified in the lawsuit was $300 million. The premise of the lawsuit was that García Mendoza and Alfonzo Hernandez were connected with the anonymous Spanish-language website www.wikianticorrupcion.org, which had accused Derwick of criminal corruption. Betancourt López said: “This legal action is not against freedom of expression, but against the practice of anonymous defamation. We have been the object of a campaign based on absolutely false charges.” García Mendoza denied that he, the bank, or Alfonzo Hernandez had done any of the things they were charged with.

Donations

In January 2012, Derwick donated funds for the construction of a football field in Sucre.

Derwick has set up the Hermogenes Lopez Foundation to send funds to social and welfare projects.

During 2012 Derwick Associates helped to establish the Carmen Salles School in Ciudad Bolivar on behalf of Congregación de las Religiosas Concepcionistas de la Enseñanza. This project aimed to provide school facilities to around 1600 students in the city of Nazareth in Ciudad Bolivar.

In 2012 the firm also donated over 200 school kits for 200 children in Charallave, as part of a larger project designed to “significantly improve” the access to educational resources for those communities local to a Derwick engineering project.

References

1. ^ César Batiz (September 26, 2011). "Compras con sobreprecio en la emergencia eléctrica". Ultimas Noticias. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
2. ^ "Ipys premia serie "Trampas Eléctricas" de ÚN". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
3. César Batiz (September 18, 2011). "Bariven compró con sobreprecio". Soberania. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
4. César Batiz (September 27, 2011). "Bariven adquirió equipos eléctricos con $403,7 millones de sobreprecio". Soberania. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
5. Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office, Derwick Associates Corporation, retrieved 4 Mar 2013.
6. Registro Mercantil Central, Derwick Associates International SRL, retrieved 4 Mar 2013.
7. ^ "Defamation Suit Seeks $300 Million in Damages From Venezuelan Bankers". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
8. Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, Derwick Associates USA, LLC, retrieved 4 Mar 2013.
9. César Batiz (August 7, 2011). "Cable pelao en la electricidad". Soberania. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
10. "Con la verdad por delante". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
11. "Mesa de unidad exige investigar plan de inversiones electricas". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
12. "Sindicalista Manuel Díaz: nunca dije que el ex ministro Sanz se apropió de esos fondos". Retrieved December 4, 2012.
13. "Obreros paralizan planta termoeléctrica en el Tuy". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
14. El Nacional, 04 Feb 2013, 70% de nueva generación en 2012 se dirigió a Caracas, Zulia y Anzoátegui Retrieved 13 Feb 2013.
15. ^ "Derwick Associates demanda a Banco Venezolano de Crédito y a Oscar García Mendoza". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
16. "Demandan al Banco Venezolano de Crédito y a su presidente". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
17. "Oscar García Mendoza: "Tomaremos las acciones que sean necesarias"". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
18. "PERFIL: El banquero que no negocia con la revolución". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
19. "Ocariz entrega quinta cancha de futbol de grama artificial en sucre". Retrieved November 25, 2012.
20. "Corporate social responsibility", Derwick Associates, retrieved 20 Mar 2013.

• Companies of Venezuela
• Construction and civil engineering companies
• Companies established in 2003