Power Research with public records
Who is Futura?
From a hospital bed, Nadia Beller alleged that a company called Futura pays commissions to Fernando Cerimedo. A senator called it a post office box in the Caribbean. No one showed a document. sala.red searched the registries and found one Futura Energy in Dubai, which says on its website that it sells fuel to YPFB, and another in Serbia. Both lead to the same name: Mirjana Sokolović.
By Violeta Ayala — Tecnóloga
What she said from the hospital
Nadia Beller, a lawyer and political analyst, was shot three times on August 17, 2026, outside a hotel in Santa Cruz. She survived. From her hospital bed she asked for a live broadcast and spoke.
Beyond naming the person she believed had ordered the attack, she made a separate accusation, about money. She said the first lady, María Elena Urquidi, works as a single window through which fuel and gold deals pass. She said a company called Futura pays Fernando Cerimedo undeclared bonuses for arranging operations in Bolivia and other countries. She mentioned an overcharge of one boliviano per liter.
She presented no documents in that interview.
The Fides news agency recorded it that way, and it bears repeating before going on: what follows are allegations, not proven facts.
What was said about the company
Senator Branko Marinković said he had reviewed Futura's public records. According to him, the company is registered in the Caribbean with a post office box as its address and no office, while moving hundreds of millions of dollars as a fuel intermediary.
The senator did not publish the record or say which country it is in. No Bolivian authority has confirmed his description.
Company registries are public in many countries. sala.red searched them and found a Futura Energy in three places: Dubai, Serbia and a court file in Panama.
What the registries say
In Dubai there is Futura Energy DMCC. It was created on September 21, 2022, in the DMCC free zone, under number DMCC194684.
The record sits in the international LEI registry, which banks and regulators use to identify companies. There the company declared that it is controlled by individuals, with no other company above it. The registry does not say who they are.
On its website, the Dubai Futura says it sells diesel, gasoline and jet fuel to Bolivia under contract with YPFB. No published contract confirms it. The second part of this series follows that trail.
In Serbia there is Futura Energy DOO, based in Novi Sad and engaged in wholesale fuel trading. It was incorporated on February 21, 2025. Its sole owner and director is Mirjana Sokolović.
According to the Serbian business registry, the company has one employee and is not listed as an importer or an exporter.
The same name appears in Panama. A filing submitted on behalf of Futura Energy DMCC before the First Maritime Court says that Mirjana Sokolović, a Serbian national, is the legal representative and sole shareholder of the Dubai company.
The business directory Dun & Bradstreet also lists her as that company's key principal. The filing circulates on Scribd with no date, no handwritten signature and no court stamp.
Three separate sources lead to the same person: Mirjana Sokolović.
GLEIF LEI registry, Serbian business registry (APR), filing in Panama case 152724-2025 published on Scribd, Dun & Bradstreet, El Deber and eju.tv.
The company that had its cargo held
The Panama case file carries another name: Volont Shipping & Trading, S.A. According to the filing, Volont sued the operators of a vessel, the Nobel, and on September 30, 2025, the court ordered the ship and the fuel it carried to be held.
Futura says part of that fuel, 80-octane gasoline, was its own, and asks for it back. It says it has no relationship with Volont.
Eleven months later, Volont bid to sell diesel to Bolivia. On August 24, 2026, YPFB opened bids from five companies: Persian Mechanical International, Trafigura Chile Limitada, Trafigura Pte Ltd, Vitol Energía Américas S.A. and Volont Shipping and Trading S.A.
Futura is not among the five.
Volont made a single offer: diesel at the Sica Sica terminal in Arica. It asked for a premium of 261.77 dollars per cubic meter over the international price. Vitol, Bolivia's main current supplier, asked 187.77 at the same terminal.
That is 74 dollars more per cubic meter, 39% more. Opening bids is not yet awarding a contract, and as of October 1 YPFB had not published who won.
What each company asked for delivering diesel in Chile
Premium over the international price, in dollars per cubic meter. Tap each bar.
- One of eight routes Trafigura PTE LTD offered, the cheapest of all. Mejillones is 600 kilometers south of Arica.
- eju.tv records delivery "in Chile" without naming the terminal.
- Vitol is currently Bolivia's main fuel supplier. It also offered Tarija at 191.99, the Paraguayan route at 262.21 and Puerto Quijarro by barge at 333.91.
- Volont's only offer. At the same terminal as Vitol and for the same product, 74 dollars more per cubic meter. On a 30,000-cubic-meter ship, that is a 2.2 million dollar difference.
Bids opened by YPFB on August 24, 2026, as reported by eju.tv with YPFB video. Bars are scaled to the highest value. Persian Mechanical International offered 95 dollars, delivered overland at Yacuiba.
On its website, Volont shows a map of its areas of operation. One of the lines leaves Greece and ends at a point in the center of South America, where Bolivia is.
The map carries no country names. The text beside it says the company has priority coverage across the Middle East, LATAM, Africa, Europe and Asia.
Volont has a judgment against it in Malta. On September 28, 2020, a civil court declared it a debtor of 27,023.27 euros for maritime services it did not pay to EMC Shipping Malta Limited.
The company was served and did not respond, and the court ruled without it. sala.red could not establish whether the debt was later paid.
The recording
Beller later released a recording of a conversation between her and Cerimedo. In it she asks him about the fuel business and about moving tanks from Argentina, and she mentions Brad Parscale.
She accuses him of being Brad's partner in the Futura business. Cerimedo denies it in the same recording: they don't pay me any commission from Futura. He says his role was to audit whether the infrastructure was fit for storing fuel.
Brad Parscale was digital director of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. For that campaign he hired Cambridge Analytica, which was paid just under six million dollars. He maintains that the firm's methods do not work.
In September 2025 he registered his company Clock Tower X in the United States as a foreign agent for Israel, with an initial six million dollar contract for communications campaigns.
Parscale does not speak in that recording. Two people name him, and the man identified as his partner denies it.
Beller has not presented her own communications with Parscale or direct quotes from him. How the audio was authenticated has not been published. Parscale did not respond to The Washington Post's inquiries for its September 26 profile.
The link between Cerimedo and Parscale that is documented does not need this recording.
Cerimedo's own outlet, the Daily Right, reported that he would be the Latin America representative of two Parscale political technology platforms, Eyes Over and Campaign Nucleus, used in Trump's 2024 campaign. Accepting an award at Mar-a-Lago in February, Cerimedo thanked Parscale for always believing in him. The Post documented that.
What the institutions did
On September 18, 2026, the Senate created a commission to investigate the allegations against Cerimedo. Its mandate includes reviewing the accusations made by Beller.
Six senators sit on it: Paola López and Marcelino Flores of the PDC, the president's party; José Sánchez and Leonardo Roca of Alianza Libre; and Eliana Acosta and Marcelo Cardona of Unidad. It has 90 days to deliver conclusions.
What is proven and what is not
Tap each category.
Built from the Prosecutor's Office communications reported by Infobae, La Razón and Oxígeno, Senate coverage by Infobae, and the Fides news agency.
The Prosecutor's Office moved on its own. On September 8 and 9 it widened the investigation against Cerimedo to usurpation of functions and money laundering, as announced by Attorney General Roger Mariaca.
None of those communications named Futura or any fuel company. Cerimedo maintains that he justified the origin of his money and denies having exercised power inside the Government, though he admits to having collaborated with the president.
Mariaca no longer leads that investigation. On September 28, the United States revoked his visa and accused him of soliciting and accepting bribes to facilitate drug trafficking. On the night of September 30 he was arrested at Viru Viru airport.
The Government accuses him of heading an organization that protected drug trafficking. Before his arrest, Mariaca said his visa was pulled because of his investigations, the Cerimedo one among them. On October 1, Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly backed the Paz government's actions. His message names neither Mariaca nor Cerimedo.
Beller says she handed that Prosecutor's Office the recordings and chats about Futura, including those that discuss commissions for Brad Parscale. Luis Montaño became interim attorney general.
The Prosecutor's Office has not said who now holds that material or who is handling the Cerimedo case.
The Prosecutor's Office declined to extend the investigation to the president's wife.
The decision became known on September 3, 2026.
In the raids that followed Cerimedo's arrest, the Prosecutor's Office confirmed finding a bot farm in a residence he occupied.
The office described it as infrastructure set up to publish content, generate mass interactions and position certain messages on social media. Published figures for the cash seized range from 400 thousand dollars to over a million, so none is recorded here until the Prosecutor's Office publishes its own.
Who did not speak
The list is short and it is the whole story.
President Rodrigo Paz and First Lady María Elena Urquidi have not responded publicly to the allegation. The company Futura has not responded. Brad Parscale did not respond to The Washington Post. The Government has not explained who paid for the adviser's services.
An allegation without documents, a company in Dubai that no one has tied to it, and a business that moves the fuel of a country in the middle of a fuel crisis.
Any of the four missing answers would settle it in an afternoon.
Ninety days
The Senate commission has until the end of December. These are the questions it can answer with documents, without relying on anyone's word.
Whether the Futura of the allegations is Futura Energy DMCC, and who stands behind it beyond its sole registered shareholder. Whether it has or had contracts with the Bolivian State, with YPFB or with intermediaries, and for how much. Whether anyone close to the president received payments from that company or its operations. Who paid for Fernando Cerimedo's services, the question the Ministry of the Presidency could not answer in July.
None of this requires believing Beller or Cerimedo.
It requires opening a company registry and a contracts ledger. Both exist, and a commission of six senators with 90 days is exactly the instrument for requesting them.
Sources
- Fides news agency: Senator Branko Marinković's allegation about Futura's registration in a Caribbean jurisdiction with a post office box as its address and no physical office, the description of the company as a fuel intermediary moving hundreds of millions of dollars, Nadia Beller's allegation about First Lady María Elena Urquidi as the single window for fuel and gold deals, the undeclared bonuses she says Futura pays Fernando Cerimedo, the one-boliviano-per-liter overcharge, the absence of documents in her hospital interview, and the silence of the president and first lady.
- El Nuevo Cambio: the recording released by Beller of a conversation with Cerimedo about the fuel business and moving tanks from Argentina, the mention of Brad Parscale, the accusation of partnership in Futura and Cerimedo's denial in the same recording. The article does not report how the recording was authenticated.
- Infobae, September 18, 2026: the creation of the Senate commission with a mandate to review Beller's accusations, its members Paola López and Marcelino Flores of the PDC, José Sánchez and Leonardo Roca of Alianza Libre, and Eliana Acosta and Marcelo Cardona of Unidad, and the 90-day term.
- Infobae, La Razón and Oxígeno: the widened investigation for usurpation of functions and money laundering announced by Attorney General Roger Mariaca, and Cerimedo's position on the origin of his money. Infobae, September 3, 2026: the Prosecutor's Office decision not to extend the investigation to the president's wife.
- Los Tiempos, September 28, 2026: the U.S. State Department's revocation of Roger Mariaca's visa and the accusation that came with it. EFE and Radio Kollasuyo, October 1, 2026: Mariaca's arrest on the night of September 30, the Government's accusation, the Prosecutor's Office complaint and his earlier statement on the Cerimedo case. Unitel, September 29, 2026: Nadia Beller's post about the recordings handed to the Prosecutor's Office. Urgente.bo, October 1, 2026: Secretary of State Marco Rubio's message.
- La República and Red Uno: the Prosecutor's Office confirmation of a bot farm found in a residence occupied by Cerimedo during the raids after his arrest, and its description as infrastructure to publish content, generate mass interactions and position messages on social media.
- El Deber: YPFB's opening of economic bids on August 24, 2026, for fuel supply in 2026, the five companies, and the clarification that the opening is not an award. El Diario, August 25, 2026 and La Patria: the names of the five bidders and the two spellings, Volont and Volond.
- eju.tv, August 24, 2026, reported by Juan Cori with YPFB video: the premiums offered by each company and delivery point, including 261.77 dollars per cubic meter from Volont Shipping and Trading S.A. and 187.77 from Vitol Energía Américas S.A. at the Sica Sica terminal in Arica.
- Courts of Malta, judgment of September 28, 2020, sworn application 379/2019, Judge Grazio Mercieca: Volont Shipping and Trading S.A. ordered to pay 27,023.27 euros to EMC Shipping Malta Limited for maritime services, in default and by summary procedure.
- futuranrg.com, Global section, consulted September 30, 2026 (archived copy): Futura Energy's claim of a term agreement with YPFB, the monthly volumes and the three airports.
- volontship.com, consulted October 1, 2026 (archived copy): the map of Volont Shipping & Trading S.A.'s areas of operation and the text beside it.
- GLEIF, LEI record 984500779013RYEA3777: registration number DMCC194684, creation date of September 21, 2022, Dubai address, and the declaration that the company is controlled by natural persons with no parent entity.
- Serbian business registry (APR), consulted October 1, 2026, through a company information portal: Futura Energy DOO Novi Sad, registration number 22085387, incorporated February 21, 2025, wholesale fuel trading, with Mirjana Sokolović as sole owner and director, one employee, not listed as importer or exporter.
- Filing "Incidente de levantamiento de secuestro", published on Scribd, five pages: case 152724-2025 of the First Maritime Court of Panama, the claim by Volont Shipping & Trading, S.A., the September 30, 2025 order on the vessel M/V Nobel and its cargo, the 80-octane gasoline cargo claimed by Futura Energy DMCC, the denial of any link with Volont, and the identification of Mirjana Sokolović as legal representative and sole shareholder.
- Dun & Bradstreet: the Futura Energy DMCC profile, with Mirjana Sokolović as key principal.
- The Washington Post, September 26, 2026, reported by Terrence McCoy: the Daily Right's announcement of the Latin America representation of Eyes Over and Campaign Nucleus, the thanks to Parscale at Mar-a-Lago in February, and Parscale's failure to respond to the paper's inquiries.
- CNN, March 21, 2018: Brad Parscale's hiring of Cambridge Analytica for the 2016 campaign, the payments of just under six million dollars and his view of the firm's methods. The Hill, September 30, 2025: the registration of Clock Tower X as a foreign agent for Israel.
This piece reports on public allegations and on the institutional actions opened in response to them. It does not assert that the alleged facts occurred. Nadia Beller presented no documents supporting her claims about Futura, the first lady or the payments, as recorded by the Fides news agency. The description of Futura's corporate registration is a public allegation by Senator Branko Marinković and has not been confirmed by any authority; sala.red has not independently verified that registration. No public information exists on the authentication of the recording released by Beller, and in it Fernando Cerimedo denies the accusation made against him. Neither Beller nor any other source has presented direct communications with Brad Parscale. The Prosecutor's Office declined to extend the investigation to the president's wife. Fernando Cerimedo is in pretrial detention, has not been convicted and is presumed innocent. Roger Mariaca has not been convicted either; the Prosecutor's Office disputes the legality of his arrest. This piece does not assert that the revocation of his visa or his arrest are a response to the investigation against Cerimedo. The Panama court filing was taken from a copy published on Scribd, with no date, handwritten signature or receipt stamp; sala.red has not confirmed with the court that it was filed or how it was resolved. It is not established that Futura Energy DMCC is the company referred to in the allegations by Beller and Senator Marinković. Mirjana Sokolović has not been accused of any crime; she is named because the Serbian business registry lists her as sole owner of Futura Energy DOO and because the filing identifies her as legal representative and sole shareholder of the Dubai company. The corporate relationship between the Serbian company and the Dubai company is not established, beyond the person and the name. None of the companies mentioned, including YPFB's five bidders, has been accused of any crime. The bidders are named because they are part of a public procurement process, and Volont Shipping & Trading, S.A. also because it appears as plaintiff in that filing. Bolivian media spell that bidder's name two ways, Volont and Volond; the YPFB record has not been consulted. sala.red has not sent inquiries to the people, institutions or companies mentioned.
