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.
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.