Tuesday, May 19th 2026 - 01:37 UTC
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello declared that Saab's Venezuelan identity documents are fraudulent and that his nationality was never valid, despite defending him during years
Colombian-Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab, regarded for years as the main financial frontman of former president Nicolás Maduro, appeared on Monday before a federal court in Miami, where he was formally charged with one count of money laundering linked to a bribery scheme used to enrich himself through contracts of Venezuela's state food import program. The hearing took place two days after acting President Delcy Rodríguez handed him over to the United States in what the Venezuelan government described as a deportation but which, in legal terms, amounts to an extradition.
Saab appeared handcuffed and in prison uniform before federal Judge Marty Fulgueira Elfenbein of the Southern District of Florida, and replied in English “yes, ma'am” after the charge was read. The indictment document, later released by the Department of Justice, accuses him of conspiring with others to bribe Venezuelan public officials in order to obtain ”lucrative contracts from the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) for the importation of food into Venezuela,“ between 2015 and 2019. The text details the alleged fraudulent misrepresentation of the nature and origin of the supplies and refers to the falsification of documents on imports purportedly arriving from Colombia and Mexico.
