A close ally of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro pled guilty on Tuesday, the 15th, to a single count of money laundering tied to an alleged bribery conspiracy to secure lucrative government contracts in the South American country.
As part of the plea agreement, Alex Saab agreed to cooperate with the ongoing federal investigations and to surrender US$195 million in illicit proceeds stemming from the corruption scheme.
Saab, 54, was deported in May by interim Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez to the United States, which has been investigating the Colombian-born businessman for more than a decade.
The money laundering offense carries a maximum penalty of 20 years, but prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the lower end of the recommended range and seek further reductions if his cooperation, including against four unidentified co-defendants, proves valuable.
Saab had already been charged during the first Trump administration, in 2019, and later arrested during a refueling layover in Cape Verde, in what the Venezuelan government described as a high-level humanitarian mission to Iran.
On Tuesday, Saab told Judge Kathleen Williams that he takes the antidepressant Zoloft daily and other medications for what he described as “post-traumatic stress disorder” following his arrest in 2020.
President Joe Biden granted Saab a pardon in 2023 in exchange for the release of several Americans imprisoned in Venezuela.
The agreement, part of a failed Biden White House attempt to persuade Maduro to hold a free presidential election, was sharply criticized by Republicans and by federal law enforcement officials, who immediately began investigating Saab for other alleged crimes not covered by the pardon, whose scope was narrow.
“The Money Man”
American authorities have long described Saab as Maduro’s “money man” and could request that he testify in favor of the former president, who awaits trial on drug-related charges in Manhattan after being captured in a U.S. military operation in January.
The new U.S. criminal case against Saab and Maduro comes as the Trump administration reshapes relations with Venezuela, focusing its attention on tapping the country’s vast oil reserves.
This month, Trump announced a partnership with Venezuelan oil magnate Alejandro Betancourt, in which the U.S. government would obtain an equity stake and access to shipments of crude oil at cost from oil fields with the potential to yield 65 billion barrels.
Saab was little known even in Venezuela until after his first arrest in 2020, when the Maduro government poured vast resources into mobilizing public support for his release.
Rodríguez, who at the time held Maduro’s vice presidency, helped organize an international campaign in which she described Saab as an “innocent Venezuelan diplomat” who had been illegally “kidnapped” by the United States.
But, after Maduro’s arrest, Rodríguez distanced herself from Saab, dismissing him from his cabinet and removing him from his role as the principal conduit for foreign companies interested in investing in Venezuela.
Saab amassed a fortune through contracts with the Venezuelan government, but became even more valuable to Maduro as U.S. sanctions forced Venezuela to conduct much of its oil sales and international trade outside Western financial institutions.
The new indictment accuses Saab and others of creating a network of companies to bribe senior Venezuelan officials who controlled contracts under the so-called CLAP program, created by Maduro to provide basic foods – rice, corn flour, cooking oil – to the poor Venezuelans during a period of galloping hyperinflation and currency collapse.
As part of the alleged conspiracy, Saab helped create shell companies, falsified shipping records, and diverted funds from government contracts to import food from Colombia and Mexico. The conspirators also had access to billions of dollars from PDVSA’s oil sales, according to the criminal complaint.
*With information from the Associated Press (AP).
