Juan Carlos Cairo Padron, 56, is a resident of Huntsville, Texas, United States. He is a citizen of Venezuela and a lawful permanent resident of the U.S.
Thomas Michael Fortinberry, 51, of Decatur, Alabama, USA is a U.S. citizen. He worked with Cairo and the companies Direct Reduction Iron (DRI) Reformers, which is based in Katy, Texas, and Reformer Technology, which is based in Belize City, Belize.
Cairo owned and operated DRI Reformers and operated Reformer Technology. He portrayed himself as the exclusive sales agent for Venezuela of a Texas-based company in an email he sent in October 2019.
From 2022 to 2025, Cairo and Fortinberry allegedly conspired to sell chemical catalysts, industrial equipment and associated services to steel mills and petrochemical companies that are owned by Venezuela and subject to U.S. sanctions. Among these companies is the steel company Complejo Siderurgico de Guayana S.A. (COMSIGUA).
Using Chinese suppliers, Cairo and Fortinberry allegedly shipped the catalysts or industrial equipment directly from China to Venezuela. They shipped the goods from the U.S. to Venezuela in at least one instance.
As part of Cairo and Fortinberry’s scheme, they allegedly transferred millions of dollars between bank accounts in China, the U.S. and Spain in transactions involving companies based in China, Spain and Germany. This enabled the two to continue their sanctions evasion scheme and conceal the true parties involved.
On June 13, 2025, Cairo and Fortinberry were arrested. A federal criminal complaint charged them with money laundering, violating U.S. sanctions related to Venezuela and illegally smuggling goods from the U.S.
The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) an the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS). It is being prosecuted by Adam P. Barry, John Marck, Mark McIntyre and Yifei Zheng.
HSI is one of the two law enforcement components of ICE. The other one is Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).
CONAN Daily 