When the U.S. recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the nation's rightful leader last year it did more than just trigger a bitter feud with socialist leader Nicolás Maduro. Increasingly, it's also unleashing a torrent of lawsuits.

The latest came Tuesday, when the Guaidó-appointed board of Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Houston against a former contractor seeking to recover millions of dollars in damages.

The lawsuit accuses José Manuel González and his Miami-based Petroleum Logistics Service Corp. of providing gifts, including cash, jewelry, private artwork, chartered flights and even a handpicked Houston apartment, to senior executives at Citgo. In exchange, officials paid González $20 million between 2014 and 2018 to provide goods and services to Citgo's parent company, PDVSA, at inflated prices.