The former Venezuelan minister Alex Saab, who pleaded guilty to money laundering in the United States this Tuesday, agreed to “provide complete information” to the U.S. authorities implicating “high-ranking Venezuelan officials,” according to the agreement reached with the Prosecutor’s Office.
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The pact reached by Saab, alleged frontman for the ousted president Nicolás Maduro, does not mention the former chavista leader, who remains imprisoned in New York accused of drug trafficking.
In the document, published hours after Saab pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money in a Miami court, the accused admits that he “agreed to launder money and commit fraud” with “high-ranking members of the Venezuelan Government,” including two suspects whose identities were not revealed by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The U.S. government agreed to request a lesser sentence for the former Minister of Industry and National Production of Venezuela (2024-2026), who could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to the 12-page agreement.
In exchange, the 54-year-old oil businessman, born in Colombia, agreed to “fully cooperate” with the Department of Justice (DOJ) by “providing truthful and complete information and testimony, and delivering documents, records, and other evidence” in “any trial or judicial proceeding” requested by the government.
“Likewise, the defendant agrees that he will not protect any person or entity through false information or omission, will not falsely implicate any person or entity, and will not commit any other crime,” the Saab pact states, who had initially pleaded “not guilty” on July 24.
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In his guilty plea, Saab acknowledged that in 2015, when Maduro was president, he organized with “high-ranking government officials” an “illegal scheme” involving “bribes” and “illegal payments” from the Venezuelan public program Local Supply and Production Committee (CLAP), with money transfers to South Florida.
This document names Álvaro Pulido Vargas, José Gregorio Vielma Mora, Emmanuel Enrique Rubio González, and Carlos Rolando Lizcano, but also mentions “co-defendant 1” and “co-defendant 3,” two suspects not publicly identified by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Saab, who appeared this Tuesday with a beard and dressed in beige, appeared for the first time on the current charges before U.S. courts on May 18, two days after his deportation to the United States from Venezuela, now under the acting presidency of Delcy Rodríguez.
This process gains relevance because it occurs after Maduro’s arrival in New York in January, where he faces charges of ‘narcoterrorism,’ drug trafficking, and weapons possession.
The businessman had already faced money laundering charges in Miami but was released in 2023 during Joe Biden’s administration (2021-2025) as part of a prisoner exchange involving a dozen detainees in Venezuela and returned to his country, where he was appointed Minister of Industries and National Production.
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