Auction nets $2M for horses owned by ex-Venezuelan official

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Bidders spent over $2 million for show-jumping horses once owned by Venezuela’s former national treasurer, who is serving a decade-long U.S. prison sentence for taking part in a $1 billion bribery scheme.

Fifty-four-year-old Alejandro Andrade is being held at a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania.

The Palm Beach Post reports 14 horses Andrade owned in Florida brought in $2,086,500 in an online auction that ended Tuesday. A stallion named Hardrock Z that Andrade’s son rode in the 2016 Summer Olympics fetched the highest bid at $282,000.

The sale proceeds will go to the U.S. Treasury.

Separate auctions will be held to sell off the rest of Andrade’s property that was seized by U.S. authorities, including mansions in exclusive Palm Beach County neighbourhoods, two farms, 10 vehicles and 35 designer watches.

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Information from: The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, http://www.pbpost.com