President Trump’s Justice Department announced the arrest of a top Nicolás Maduro ally on money laundering charges tied to what prosecutors describe as a sprawling corruption scheme involving Venezuelan food contracts and oil.

Alex Nain Saab Moran, Venezuela’s former Minister of Industry and National Production, made his initial court appearance Monday after an indictment was unsealed in the Southern District of Florida.

Saab was deported over the weekend by Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodríguez.

The case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative.

The Justice Department laid out the allegations:

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Venezuela’s former Minister of Industry and National Production made his initial appearance in court today pursuant to an indictment unsealed in the Southern District of Florida charging him for his alleged role in a sprawling international money laundering conspiracy involving the corruption and exploitation of a Venezuelan public welfare program intended to provide food to vulnerable Venezuelans.

According to court records, Alex Nain Saab Moran, 55, of Colombia, allegedly conspired with others to bribe Venezuelan public officials to secure lucrative Comité Local de Abastecimiento y Producción (CLAP) contracts to import food into Venezuela. Saab is accused of conspiring with others to fraudulently misrepresent the nature and source of the food supplies, including falsely documenting imports from Colombia and Mexico.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Saab “will be prosecuted and held fully accountable under U.S. law for his alleged role in this scheme.”

“Alex Saab allegedly used American banks to launder hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from a Venezuelan food program meant for the poor and proceeds from the illegal sale of Venezuelan oil,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva.

“The Criminal Division will not allow foreign actors to exploit the American financial system and use it as a safe haven for the proceeds of their corruption.”

The Justice Department detailed the alleged scheme:

Rather than fulfilling the contracts, Saab and his co-conspirators secretly used shell companies, fraudulent invoices, falsified shipping records, and other fabricated documents, along with a network of bribes and kickbacks, to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars that were intended to be used to purchase food for needy Venezuelans. Portions of the illicit proceeds were allegedly spent or concealed through transfers to and through bank accounts in the U.S.

The indictment further alleges that, from 2019 through at least January 2026, the conspiracy expanded as U.S. economic sanctions crippled Venezuelan exports, especially oil, placing severe strain on the country’s finances and its ability to meet its foreign debt obligations, including payments to Saab and his co-conspirators as part of the CLAP program.

The indictment says Saab and his alleged co-conspirators gained access to billions of dollars’ worth of oil owned by Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA and sold it under false pretenses.

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Saab is charged with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

An indictment is only an allegation. Saab is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Saab had previously been charged during President Trump’s first term in 2019 and was arrested during a refueling stop in Cape Verde.

But President Joe Biden pardoned him in 2023 as part of a prisoner swap that drew criticism from Republicans and federal law enforcement.

The Associated Press reported on the courtroom scene:

A close ally of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was charged Monday with bribing top officials to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from lucrative contracts to import food at a time of widespread hardship in the South American country.

Alex Saab made his initial court appearance after being deported over the weekend by acting President Delcy Rodríguez as part of a purge of insider businessmen who are believed to have enriched themselves through corrupt dealings with Maduro.

Shackled and wearing a beige prison uniform, Saab answered “Yes, ma’am,” in English after being asked by a federal judge in Miami whether he understood the charges against him: a single count of money laundering tied to a decade-old conspiracy to create fake companies, falsify shipping records and skim from government contracts to import food from Colombia and Mexico.

Saab, 54, was previously charged during the first Trump administration in 2019 and then arrested during a refueling stop in Cape Verde on what the Venezuelan government described as a high-level humanitarian mission to Iran.

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But President Joe Biden pardoned him in 2023 in exchange for the release of several imprisoned Americans in Venezuela. The deal, part of a failed effort by the Biden White House to lure Maduro into holding a free presidential election, was harshly criticized by Republicans and federal law enforcement officials, who immediately began investigating Saab for other alleged crimes not covered by the narrowly tailored pardon.

U.S. officials have long described Saab as Maduro’s “bag man” and could ask him to serve as a valuable character witness against his former protector, who is awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan after being captured in a raid by the U.S. military in January.

Saab amassed a fortune through Venezuelan government contracts. The indictment against him in 2019 was tied to a government contract for low-income housing that was never built.

The new indictment stems from another case the Justice Department brought against Saab’s longtime partner over the so-called CLAP program set up by Maduro to provide staples, rice, corn flour, cooking oil, to poor Venezuelans at a time of rampant hyperinflation and a crumbling currency.

The deportation signaled a new level of coordination between the Trump administration and Rodríguez, who described the move as “justified by national interests.”

Reuters explained the broader significance:

U.S. prosecutors charged Alex Saab, known as the “bag man” for former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, with money laundering over his alleged exploitation of a Venezuelan welfare plan, according to court filings unsealed on Monday.

Saab, a top ally of Maduro’s, was deported by Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez over the weekend to the U.S. in a move that she said was “justified by national interests.”

The deportation signaled a new level of coordination between the Trump administration and Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vice president.

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Saab, the 55-year-old former Venezuelan minister of industry, conspired to bribe Venezuelan officials and transferred money through U.S. bank accounts to enrich himself, prosecutors alleged. He made his initial court appearance on Monday afternoon in a Miami federal court.

The charges come as the administration of President Trump prepares to try Maduro, who was captured by U.S. special forces in Caracas earlier this year.

Saab could provide U.S. authorities with information to strengthen their criminal case against Maduro, Reuters previously reported.

In the court filings, prosecutors describe a sprawling scheme that began in 2015 in which Saab and others used fake companies, shipping records and invoices to pilfer hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked to buy food for Venezuelans.

Starting in 2019, Saab and his alleged co-conspirators used their access to the Venezuelan government, which was struggling to pay foreign debts amid U.S. economic sanctions, to sell billions of dollars of oil under false pretenses, prosecutors wrote, alleging that money from those sales was also transferred through U.S. bank accounts.

President Joe Biden later granted him clemency in 2023 in exchange for the release of Americans detained in Venezuela.

The arrest is part of the Trump DOJ’s aggressive push against cartels, foreign corruption networks, and actors accused of exploiting American banks to hide dirty money.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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