The Colombian Alex Saab pleaded guilty this Tuesday to conspiracy to commit money laundering and illicit financial transactions, after reaching an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office American in federal court in Miami. This raises questions not only about the future of Saab, but also about himself. Nicolas Madurowho was the businessman’s boss.
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Saab is accused of being Maduro’s front man, now imprisoned in a federal prison in New York.
The former head of the regime did not miss the opportunity to request the release of his friend, whom he designated as a diplomat and for that reason “he was on a mission” in 2020, when he was arrested in Cape Verde and extradited to the United States a year later for allegedly laundering more than $350 million for Chavismo.
In December 2023, Joe Biden returned him to Caracas after a prisoner exchange. The exchange allowed the release of ten Americans detained in Venezuela and about 20 Venezuelan prisoners linked to the opposition.
Saab had benefited from presidential clemency and returned to Caracas, where Maduro received him personally at the Miraflores Palace. The Chavista leader received him with hugs and honors and then appointed him as Minister of Industries and National Production.
Alex Saab is already in the United States. Photo:EFE
From ‘Free Alex Saab’ to his fall from grace
The years that Saab was in prison helped a movement called “Free Alex Saab” emerge in the Venezuelan capital, which deployed a monthly campaign with singers, posters, marches and constant tears from his wife, the Italian Camilla Fabri, who also held positions in the Government and was even in charge of receiving deported migrants who arrived in the country.
It is also known that, in the business network that Saab had in Venezuela, there was the media Venezuela Newswhich closed a few weeks after Maduro’s capture by the United States.
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In May, Saab went from being the hero of the hardline madurismo to being sent by Rodríguez back to the United States. On May 16, he was transferred to that country, after being captured in February in a joint operation between the FBI and Venezuelan authorities. Two days later he had his first hearing before a federal court in Florida and, On July 22, he pleaded not guilty to the crimes he faced in that state.
The turn was also accompanied by a change in the Venezuelan Government’s speech about Saab. The Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, denied that he had Venezuelan nationality and accused him of carrying a false ID.
The case initially advanced towards a jury trial that was scheduled for November, but the hearing was canceled due to the plea agreement reached by Saab and the Prosecutor’s Office.
Now, imprisoned in Miami, the former diplomat pleaded guilty and, as part of this agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office, agreed to cooperate with US federal investigations and hand over $195 million considered illicit profits derived from the corruption scheme.
Alex Saab, designated by the US as an alleged figurehead of the deposed president Nicolás Maduro. Photo:EFE
But the agreement does not mean that Saab is assured of a specific sentence. The crime to which he pleaded guilty carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, while prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the lower end of the range set by federal guidelines and ask for additional reductions if his cooperation proves helpful. The sentence is scheduled for January 2027.
Cooperation is one of the most sensitive points of the agreement: Saab must provide information to US investigators and this can be used in investigations against other people. The agreement expressly provides for his possible cooperation against four co-defendants whose names were not publicly revealed.
“Alex Saab pleads guilty and agrees to return 195 million dollars obtained illicitly. I’m afraid it’s not much for what he stole in Venezuela, but calculate if he himself agrees to hand over those 195 million dollars,” the investigative journalist wrote in Roberto Deniz, who had to go into exile from Venezuela as he was one of the first to reveal Saab’s corruption plots with the food import business of poor quality for Venezuelans in vulnerable situations.
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According to the US indictment, Saab and his associates used front companies, false documents and international bank accounts to move and hide money from government contracts.
Furthermore, the US file expanded the focus beyond the CLAP program. Prosecutors maintain that the network also took advantage of the state-owned PDVSA’s access to oil and made sales under false conditions. with funds that subsequently circulated through US bank accounts to hide and move the profits. The indictment maintains that this part of the scheme extended from 2019 until at least January 2026.
The questions raised by the agreement
This statement from Saab raises questions. One of them is whether he has really been a DEA cooperator for years, an accusation that his wife denied while crying at rallies in Caracas asking for the man’s freedom.
But several media revealed in 2022 that court documents indicated that Saab collaborated with US authorities over a period of almost 12 months starting in 2018, offering information about his “criminal activity” and handing over money to the DEA as part of an agreement that was to culminate with his voluntary surrender to face the charges.
Nicolás Maduro escorted by DEA agents. Photo: EFE
Maduro always said that the accusations were false; However, today suspicions are revived.
Another question that arises is how what Saab offers will affect Maduro’s trial, which is scheduled for June 2027. The former Venezuelan leader is accused of narcoterrorism and, if Saab is a DEA informant, the case could be strengthened.
His name already appears related to US investigations into the financial structure of the Maduro Government, and prosecutors have indicated that his eventual cooperation could provide relevant information for other ongoing investigations.
The possible usefulness of Saab for the case against Maduro is, precisely, one of the elements that makes the agreement especially relevant.
AP reported that US prosecutors could use his cooperation in additional investigations, while Saab is considered by US authorities to be a former financial operator close to Maduro. However, it is not yet publicly known what information he will provide or if it will be used directly in the process against the former president.
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“Now it will be key to know the terms of the agreement and whether it contemplates cooperation with US justice, which will probably happen. Today I don’t think that Nicolás Maduro would appear so smiling in a photo. And others in Venezuela, neither”wrote political analyst Walter Molina in X.
For the opposition party Primero Justicia, if Alex Saab pleaded guilty before the US courts of money laundering and will hand over 195 million, it is necessary that “everyone responsible for the suffering and cruelty towards the Venezuelan family be held accountable before justice.”
The organization assured that Saab, together with Maduro, led the corruption scheme “while millions of Venezuelans suffered from hunger, poverty and scarcity” and, even so, Saab “It articulated a plot of corruption of the CLAP, diverting resources intended to feed the most vulnerable.
Behind every looted dollar there were families going hungry, children suffering from malnutrition, and Venezuelan families forced to leave the country looking for a better future.”
Camila Fabri, wife of Álex Saab. Photo: Efe
This is not the only case facing Saab, who, at the beginning of the last decade, when he was a bankrupt fabric businessman, was able to enter, thanks to Piedad Córdoba, the circle of trust of Chavismo. At the beginning of the year, Italian media reported that the legal proceedings in Italy against him and his wife, Camilla Fabri, It was closed through a judicial agreement with the Rome Prosecutor’s Office. The accusation was also for money laundering.
ANA MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ BRAZÓN – EL TIEMPO Correspondent – Caracas
