Maduro ally deported to US over alleged billion-dollar corruption scheme linked to oil and food program

(SeaPRwire) –   A former close associate of removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been transferred by Venezuela to the United States, per Venezuelan officials, to answer U.S. federal charges alleging that he directed an extensive money-laundering and bribery operation linked to Venezuela’s state-administered food program and oil sector.

Alex Nain Saab Moran, 55, a Colombian national and ex-minister of industry and national production during the Maduro administration, made a court appearance in Miami on Monday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. The Justice Department noted that Saab is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Prosecutors assert that Saab oversaw a multiyear plan starting around 2015 to defraud a humanitarian initiative created to supply food to Venezuelans in need.

He and his alleged co-conspirators subsequently sold billions of dollars in Venezuelan state-owned oil while bypassing U.S. sanctions, per the Justice Department. Authorities contend that proceeds were channeled through U.S. bank accounts to mask the transactions and further the operation.

“Alex Saab is accused of using American banks to launder hundreds of millions of dollars taken from a Venezuelan food program for the poor and from proceeds tied to the unlawful sale of Venezuelan oil,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva in a statement. “Such conduct is intolerable. The Criminal Division will not permit foreign actors to misuse the American financial system as a shelter for corruption proceeds.”

Beginning around 2015, Saab and his associates purportedly paid bribes to Venezuelan officials to obtain contracts linked to the nation’s CLAP welfare program, which was designed to buy and distribute food to at-risk and impoverished Venezuelans.

Rather than deliver the agreed-upon food, prosecutors say the group employed shell companies, false invoices, and fabricated shipping records to divert hundreds of millions of dollars from the program for personal benefit.

Around 2019, as broad U.S. sanctions weakened Venezuela’s oil exports and strained national finances—including the capacity to pay Saab and his associates under the CLAP program—Saab and his partners allegedly leveraged corrupt government connections to access billions of dollars in oil held by Venezuela’s state oil company.

Officials claim the group sold the oil under misleading circumstances and used the profits to maintain and enlarge the original food-related fraud.

Saab and his associates reportedly laundered the allegedly misappropriated funds through U.S. bank accounts to obscure the money trail, providing U.S. courts with jurisdiction to pursue the matter.

“When unlawful proceeds enter the United States financial system, our courts can exercise jurisdiction and our prosecutors will proceed,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones in a statement.

Saab was previously indicted in the United States in 2019 and transferred from Cabo Verde in 2021. He received a pardon from President Biden in 2023 as part of a prisoner exchange, though prosecutors state that the current case covers conduct not addressed by that pardon.

A Miami-based attorney for Saab told The Associated Press that he had no comment.

If found guilty, Saab could face up to 20 years in federal prison. The government also seeks forfeiture of any assets or proceeds allegedly derived from the claimed criminal conduct.

The investigation was conducted by a U.S. Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), comprising the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).