Colombian extradited from Cape Verde appears in Florida courtroom
A Colombian citizen appeared in a Florida federal courtroom, 18 October, having been extradited from the Republic of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), to face charges of ‘laundering the proceeds of violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with a scheme to pay bribes to take advantage of Venezuela’s government-controlled exchange rate.’
The US Department of Justice (‘DoJ’) says that, on 25 July 2019, ‘Alex Nain Saab Moran (Saab)’, was charged along with Alvaro Pulido Vargas, aka German Enrique Rubio Salas, 55, also a Colombian citizen, in an eight-count indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and seven counts of money laundering. The indictment alleges that beginning in or around November 2011 and continuing until at least September 2015, Saab and Pulido conspired with others to launder the proceeds of an illegal bribery scheme from bank accounts located in Venezuela to and through bank accounts located in the United States.’
It says that Saab and Pulido ‘obtained a contract with the Venezuelan government in November 2011 to build low-income housing units. The defendants and their co-conspirators then took advantage of Venezuela’s government-controlled exchange rate, under which U.S. dollars could be obtained at a favorable rate, by submitting false and fraudulent import documents for goods and materials that were never imported into Venezuela and bribing Venezuelan government officials to approve those documents. The indictment alleges that the unlawful activity was a bribery scheme that violated the FCPA and involved bribery offenses against Venezuela.’
As a result of the scheme, says the DoJ, ‘Saab and Pulido transferred approximately $350 million out of Venezuela, through the United States, to overseas accounts they owned or controlled.’
It also explains that, on 12 June 2020, ‘Saab was detained in the Republic of Cabo Verde, an archipelago nation west of continental Africa, at the request of the United States. The United States thereafter submitted a formal extradition request, which Saab opposed. On March 16, the Cabo Verdean Supreme Court approved the extradition of Saab.’
However, Reuters reports that Venezuela’s government describes the United States as having ‘kidnapped’ Saab, and say that at the time he was detained, he was heading to Iran to ‘negotiate supplies of fuel and food that have been interrupted by U.S. sanctions.’
Saab and Pulido were designated by the US Treasury on the same day as being charged, in 2019, for their involvement ‘in a large-scale network of corruption to obtain valuable business contracts with the Government of Venezuela’.
