right thing. drew griffin joins us. that s the fastest-walking venezuelan official i ve ever seen. do we know if the venezuelan government investigated the claims or did any checks to see if their own documents were being sold? reporter: anderson, surprisingly, the only investigation we re aware of at this point is the one that involves the whistle blower, lopez. he brought his charges to the ambassador, then the foreign minister that you saw running along the sidewalk. they ignored his investigative work that he compiled on duty and instead turned attention to him. the implication is that terrorists could be, worst-case scenarios with, terrorists could be buying these passports and flying to other countries, not the united states, but into the european union. reporter: correct, as we pointed out, the u.s. requires an additional step of visa for anyone with a venezuelan passport. but this is a global security problem. and the problem with passport control when you re dealing wi
until finally, we tracked down the foreign minister on the sidewalk outside the u.n. as she walked into the u.n., rodriguez refused to answer any more questions. is there anything you d like to say? reporter: and ambassador velasco, in an e-mail to cnn wrote that he has nothing to hide or fear, and the embassy, don t never and everybody sell foreign nationalities.
venezuelan passports and visas. on his first day in baghdad, lopez says venezuela s ambassador, jonathan velasco entrusted him with a very special envelope. full of visas and passports. he told me, get this. this is one million u.s. dollar. i pocket thought it was like a . and he told me, no. here people pay a lot of money to get a visa or passport to leave this country. reporter: you said you thought it was a joke. of course. the first moment, yeah. that s his meaning, but i take it like that. it was the first day, so. reporter: but about a month later, lopez learned the ambassador s joke foreshadowed a frightening discovery. lopez says an iraqi employ eve the embassy seen here in a video he recorded told him venezuela s passports and visas were being sold. she had made thousands of dollars. cash. and lopez could too.
that s the case for 20 of the 21 i.d. registers to other people. people with hispanic names. not the arabic names listed on the passports. so these are fake people with real passports? no, it s not fake people. it s different people. reporter: lopez says he even found this man, who has an iraqi national i.d. but a venezuelan passport that says he was born in venezuela. so this guy, it s like he has two mothers, and he was born in two places. reporter: lopez documented everything, including the offer to profit. and sent an official report to the venezuelan ambassador. jonathan velasco. and there s no doubt in your mind that the ambassador knew this was happening. how could he, being there for so long, couldn t notice that.
visa, not including the united states. lopez was the legal adviser for the venezuelan embassy in baghdad, starting in july 2013. a former police officer and an attorney, he provided cnn with documents that he says show an employee at the venezuelan embassy in iraq sold passports and visas for a profit. and, a cnn investigation found serious irregularities in venezuelan passports and visas. on his first day in baghdad, lopez says venezuela s ambassador, jonathan velasco entrusted him with a very special envelope. full of visas and passports. he told me, get this. this is one million u.s. dollar. i thought it was like a joke. and he told me, no. here people pay a lot of money to get a visa or passport to leave this country. reporter: you said you thought it was a joke.