Alex Saab, ally of Venezuela’s Maduro, pleads guilty in US corruption case

By Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel

Sept 15 (Reuters) – A Colombian-born businessman with close ties to ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a U.S. corruption case, as federal prosecutors prepare separately to take Maduro to trial next year.

Alex Saab entered the plea to one count of money laundering conspiracy at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami, court records show. 

He also agreed to forfeit $195 million and cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice. The court records did not reveal the nature of any investigations where Saab might offer help.

Saab’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Prosecutors said Saab stole millions of dollars from a welfare plan intended to help feed needy Venezuelans, and transferred some proceeds to U.S. bank accounts.

He had pleaded not guilty in July, two months after being extradited as part of acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez’s attempt to shed parts of her predecessor’s government. 

Saab served under Maduro as Venezuela’s minister of industry, before being removed by Rodriguez in January soon after Maduro’s seizure by U.S. Special Forces in Caracas. Venezuela’s new government detained Saab the following month.

The U.S. criminal case is the second against Saab.

In 2020, he was detained in Cape Verde and extradited the following year to face money laundering charges for allegedly siphoning $350 million out of Venezuela in connection with a bribery scheme.

Former U.S. President Joe Biden granted Saab clemency in December 2023, as part of a prisoner swap.

Maduro is being held without bail in a Brooklyn jail, after pleading not guilty to drug trafficking charges.

He has claimed immunity from U.S. prosecution because he once led a sovereign country. Legal experts have called this an uphill battle, in part because Washington had not recognized Maduro as Venezuela’s president since 2019. Maduro’s trial is scheduled for June 1, 2027.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)