He former Venezuelan minister Alex Saab, designated by the United States as an alleged front man for Nicolás Maduro, pleaded guilty this Tuesday to conspiracy to launder money and illicit financial transactions after an agreement with the US Attorney’s Office in a federal court in Miami.
By appearing in person in a Miami court, with gray hair tied back, beard and ocher prison uniform, Saab changed the plea of ”not guilty”, which he had presented on July 24, to one of guilt during a hearing before Judge Kathleen M. Williams in the Southern District Court of Florida.
“Guilty, your honor,” The 54-year-old businessman said at the hearing, the Efe news agency reported.
The 12-page agreement that Saab reached with the Prosecutor’s Office, whose details were not revealed, was reviewed by the judge, after which the former Venezuelan official of Colombian origin He could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Saab, who will be sentenced next January, admitted that he committed, together with accomplices with undisclosed identities, conspiracy for illicit activities, fraud, bribing officials and hiding the origin of funds.
The authorities did not reveal the details of the agreement at the time of the meeting, but the former minister of former President Maduro, deposed by the United States in January and imprisoned in New York, He asserted that “there was no” treatment beyond that presented to the Prosecutor’s Office or threats to make him accept his guilt.
Saab appeared for the first time on the current charges before the US courts on May 18, two days after his deportation to the United States from Venezuela, now under the presidency of Delcy Rodríguez.
The case, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), involves corruption and exploitation of a social assistance program intended to provide food to vulnerable Venezuelans with alleged transfers to bank accounts in the United States.
This process becomes relevant because it occurs after Maduro’s arrival in New York in January, where he faces charges for “narcoterrorism”, drug trafficking and weapons possession.
The businessman had already faced charges of money laundering in Miami, but he was freed in 2023 during the Joe Biden government (2021-2025) as part of an exchange for a dozen prisoners in Venezuela and returned to his country, where he was named Minister of Industries and National Production.
The Colombian businessman now stated that he suffers from “post-traumatic stress syndrome” after his arrest in Cape Verde in 2020 and his subsequent extradition to US territory, which is why he takes antidepressants every night to sleep.
