Five people, including a politician from the ruling party and a partner of a businessman close to the illegitimate president Nicolas Maduro, have been charged with money laundering in connection with an alleged bribery scheme in Venezuela, reported the Department of Justice of USA.
The indictment alleges that the five – three Colombian citizens and two Venezuelans – laundered the proceeds of a bribery scheme to obtain and retain inflated contracts through a Venezuelan state food distribution program known as CLAP.
The five defendants are the Colombian Álvaro Pulido Vargas, 57; former Venezuelan regional governor José Gregorio Vielma-Mora, 55; Emmanuel Enrique Rubio González, 32, and Carlos Rolando Lizcano Manrique, 50, the latter two also from Colombia; as well as 49-year-old Venezuelan Ana Guillermo Luis, the Justice Department said.
Pulido Vargas is a long-time business partner of fellow Colombian businessman Alex Saab, who is close to the Venezuelan president and was extradited to the United States over the weekend to face money laundering charges.
Pulido Vargas was sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department in 2019 and charged with Saab that same year for an alleged money laundering scheme. Rubio González is the son of Pulido Vargas.
The United States Treasury sanctioned Saab in 2019, accusing it of being a “speculator” who got rich through contracts from the state food distribution program.
Vielma Mora is a longtime Venezuelan ruling party politician who was governor of the Andean state of Táchira and is now a deputy.
Between 2015 and at least 2020, they conspired with others to launder money from bank accounts in Antigua, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere through US accounts, the Justice Department added.
According to the Justice Department, the group received about $ 1.6 billion from Venezuela and transferred about $ 180 million through or to the United States.
Reuters could not immediately reach the people’s representatives for comment.
If convicted, each faces a total maximum penalty of 100 years in prison, the department said.
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