MIAMI (AP) — A businessman faces conviction for corruption linked to Venezuela’s state oil company killed his 3-year-old son before killing himself at a luxury Miami condominium, police said Friday.
The bodies of José Manuel González Testino, 53, and his son were found Wednesday evening in a condominium in the Coconut Grove district when the police came to search the apartment at the request of a relative.
“He is being investigated as a shooting murder-suicide,” Miami police spokesman Michael Vega told The Associated Press on Friday.
Venezuelan-American González Testino controlled several US-based international companies and pleaded guilty in 2019 in federal courts in southern Texas to his role in a bribery scheme involving state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela ( PDVSA) and its subsidiaries, according to the Department of Justice. His sentencing was scheduled for the end of March in federal court in Houston.
Police attended the apartment in the Coconut Grove neighborhood at the request of a relative of the boy who called 911 to check on everything, Vega said.
He did not identify the relative who made the call, but The Miami Herald newspaper and numerous local media reported that the boy’s mother was the one who made the call after unsuccessful attempts to contact the father. .
The door to the apartment was locked, and since the police did not have permission to break it in, the family member did. Upon entering, they found the bodies, Vega said.
The apartment is located in a luxurious complex of two spiraling glass towers overlooking Biscayne Bay where properties are valued at millions of dollars.
González Testino was arrested in July 2018 at Miami International Airport and later released on bail. According to court documents, the businessman controlled several US and international companies that provided services and products to PDVSA and, along with others, had bribed officials of the Venezuelan state oil company.
The businessman admitted in US courts that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to obtain information and benefits for his businesses, including securing contracts.