Saab, before the US Justice in a case that focuses on Maduro

The Colombian-Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab began to face the Justice of USA for a money laundering case that has as a background the information that he can and wants to provide on the alleged links of the illegitimate government of Nicolas Maduro, with that scheme of corruption.

In a first hearing in Miami, in which the United States Prosecutor’s Office considered that it is an inmate who presents a “flight danger” after having fought tenaciously for his extradition from Cape Verde (Africa) for more than a year, Judge John O’Sullivan scheduled the next hearing for November 1.

Saab, who was finally extradited to the United States last Saturday, was connected from his cell to the virtual hearing, as did the lawyer Henry Bell, who represented him, from his office.

The extradited man, born 49 years ago in Barranquilla (Colombia), was alone, without handcuffs, wearing orange prison clothes and his characteristic loose hair.

During the brief hearing by Zoom, which had more than 350 participants, many of them journalists, US prosecutor Kurt Lunkenheimer told the judge that he will not recommend bail.

Lunkenheimer recalled that Saab had just arrived in the country this weekend after “battling extradition for more than 400 days in the Republic of Cape Verde.”

The Venezuelan exile, who on Monday celebrated the extradition at the gates of the federal court in Miami, believes that the Colombian-Venezuelan businessman, who would be Maduro’s front man, may be key to bringing the illegitimate president and his leadership to justice.

“I am convinced that he is going to expose Maduro. What sense does it make to sacrifice for a corrupt regime if he can obtain benefits, he can have a lower sentence ”, expressed José Colina, president of Venezuelans Persecuted Politicians in Exile (Veppex).

Saab said, however, in a letter read in Caracas by his wife, Camila Fabril, that “he has nothing to collaborate” with the United States and that he did not commit any crime.

The eight charges that Saab has been charged with since July 2019 in the United States (seven of money laundering and one of conspiracy to commit that crime) involve violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), according to the Justice Department recalled this Monday.

Dialogue Break

Venezuelan opponents, including Leopoldo López, who was participating in the Oslo Freedom Forum in Miami two weeks ago, believe that Saab is key to putting other Venezuelan officials in jail.

López even pointed out then that Saab will reveal not only corruption in Venezuela, but in Iran and Russia.

For the opposition in Miami, the immediate reaction of the Chavista regime to the extradition of Saab, which on the same Saturday interrupted the dialogues with the Venezuelan opposition that were taking place in Mexico, is a sign of the importance of the case for Maduro.

Saab, Colina pointed out, has information that “can allow going after other people who are involved in the corruption case.”

The exile assured that Maduro’s main intention in the talks was to prevent Saab from reaching the United States and added that Maduro got up from the table “because that no longer has any meaning or benefit for him.”

According to court records of the case in Miami, in a letter sent to Saab last January by the Venezuelan Minister of Industries and National Production, Jorge Arreaza, the official asked him, at Maduro’s request, not to accept voluntary extradition.

He points out that in his “capacity as Special Envoy” if the extradition to the United States becomes effective, he must keep the information confidential under penalty of facing the Venezuelan Justice.

That letter, to which Efe had access, was presented to the Miami court by Saab’s defense as one of the arguments on diplomatic immunity that supposedly protects Saab, who became a Venezuelan citizen.

Saab has already had a judicial setback in Miami with Judge Charles N. Scola, who refused to overturn the order that deemed him a “fugitive” and to dismiss the money laundering charge.

Saab’s defense, which appealed that ruling and awaits a response from an Atlanta court, now has a priority hearing in two weeks, in which it will foreseeably ask for bail.

The charges and the accomplice

The indictment notes that between November 2011 and at least September 2015, Saab and its partner, Álvaro Pulido, who is a fugitive, conspired with others to launder the proceeds of a corruption network based on bribes aimed at obtaining contracts to carry out projects. public and fraud to the currency exchange control system.

As a result of the plan, Saab and Pulido transferred from Venezuela, through the United States, approximately US $ 350 million to accounts they owned or controlled in other countries, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

In an apparent response to Saab’s defense arguments that the United States does not have jurisdiction in this case, the Justice Department stressed in a statement that the meetings to promote the payment of the bribes were held in Miami and that Saab and Pulido transferred money related to the plan to bank accounts in the Southern District of Florida.