MANAGUA – A judge ordered three former employees of the Nicaraguan government’s joint oil venture with Venezuela held without bail on charges they embezzled 1.4 million cordobas ($67,210) from the enterprise, the press reported Tuesday, while noting that only two of the defendants are in custody.

The affected firm, Albanisa, is jointly owned by state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA and Nicaraguan counterpart Petronic.

Judge Octavio Rothschuh set Feb. 26 as the date for the trial of Leyla Josefa Gonzalez Cordero, Maria Lisette Gutierrez Silva and Henry Ricardo Rodriguez Largaespada.

But Nicaraguan media report that Gonzalez Cordero, Albanisa’s erstwhile controller, has fled the country.

The alleged embezzlement was discovered in November by PDVSA auditors, who turned their findings over to Nicaraguan prosecutors.

PDVSA and Petronic created Albanisa in 2007 to sell and distribute Venezuelan oil in Nicaragua and build a refinery in the impoverished Central American country.

Venezuela, a leading oil exporter and the No. 4 supplier of crude to the United States, sells petroleum on concessionary terms to around a dozen Caribbean and Central American countries under the Petrocaribe initiative. EFE