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A close ally of Venezuela’s former president, Nicolas Maduro, Alex Saab, appeared in a United States federal court in Miami on Monday to face money laundering charges linked to alleged corruption involving Venezuelan food and oil contracts.
US prosecutors accuse the 54-year-old Colombian-born businessman of being a front man for Maduro, running a network that exploited Venezuela’s subsidised food programme, CLAP, and funnelling illicit proceeds through the American banking system.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said in a statement that Saab was accused of using US financial channels to “launder hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from a Venezuelan food program meant for the poor, as well as proceeds from the illegal sale of Venezuelan oil.”
Saab, long described by US officials as a key figure in Maduro’s economic network, was recently deported to the United States from Venezuela in a move linked to shifting political and security arrangements between both countries.
He had previously been arrested in Cape Verde in 2020 on US charges and later extradited to America, before being released in 2023 as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Caracas.
Authorities say Saab was later appointed Venezuela’s minister of industry in 2024, before being removed from office following renewed legal and political pressure.
US prosecutors say the latest indictment is part of broader efforts to dismantle alleged corruption networks tied to the former Venezuelan administration.
