Anglo-French oil company Perenco and Russian financial firm Gazprombank are the two companies identified in testimony by a former Venezuelan state oil company official as having payed millions of dollars in bribes, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

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Abraham Ortega, a former financial executive at state oil company PDVSA, accepted $5 million in bribes from a French oil company and from a Russian bank, U.S. prosecutors in Florida said on Wednesday in a statement, which did not name either company.

Prosecutors said that in exchange, Ortega helped the companies gain "priority status" to loan money to joint ventures in which they were partners with PDVSA.

Perenco, Gazprombank and PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)