A controversial shipping magnate supplying gasoline to his native Venezuela said he will do whatever it takes to prevent worsening fuel shortages from igniting a social explosion that he warns could be worse than anything caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the South American country. Wilmer Ruperti gave his first interview in years after The Associated Press reported earlier this month that his company, Maroil Trading Inc., was buying gasoline that most companies are refusing to sell to the bankrupt, heavily sanctioned socialist country. “This isn’t about my business,” Ruperti told AP at his modernist hilltop mansion overlooking Caracas.
