People look at a mural depicting Colombian-Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sunday, a day after he was extradited to the United States. On Monday, Saab made his initial appearance in a Miami courtroom. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez/EPA
May 18 (UPI) -- Alex Saab, a billionaire Colombian businessman and longtime ally of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, appeared in a Miami federal courtroom on Monday, days after he was extradited to the United States.
Saab, 54, made his initial court appearance in the Southern District of Florida, where a federal indictment was unsealed, charging him with conspiracy to launder money through U.S. banks.
U.S. authorities have long accused Saab of corruption, specifically of using his connections to the Maduro regime to skim money from government programs intended to benefit Venezuela's poor and of helping Maduro evade sanctions.
The case is centered on the Venezuelan government program Local Committees for Supply and Production, known as CLAP, an acronym of its Spanish name. Created in 2016 in response to the collapse of Venezuela's economy, CLAP was intended to provide subsidized food to the country's poor.
