Fugitive Businessman Linked to Alleged Venezuelan Corruption Taken Into US Custody

A Colombian businessman wanted by the United States for allegedly paying bribes to secure lucrative Venezuelan government contracts has been taken into custody and will appear in a Florida courtroom on Oct. 13.

Alvaro Pulido, 62, is alleged to have laundered more than $2 billion in connection with the bribery schemes, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

A federal court in Miami indicted Pulido in absentia in 2019 and again in 2021. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest. It is unclear where authorities arrested him.

Pulido and his co-conspirators paid bribes to secure contracts from a Venezuelan government program intended to provide food and medicine to Venezuelans, according to the 2021 indictment.

The indictment states that they inflated contract costs and laundered the proceeds through bank accounts in the United States, Antigua and Barbuda, and the United Arab Emirates. He and co-conspirators allegedly transferred $180 million through or to the United States.

Pulido was a business partner of Alex Saab, once an ally of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Pulido and Saab were indicted in 2019 for allegedly laundering about $350 million in connection with a bribery scheme involving Venezuela’s currency exchange system, according to U.S. prosecutors.

In the 2021 indictment, prosecutors charged Pulido with conspiracy to commit money laundering and four counts of money laundering, each carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. In the separate 2019 indictment, prosecutors charged him with conspiracy to commit money laundering and seven counts of money laundering.

Saab, 54, was extradited to the United States from Cabo Verde in 2021 but was released in a 2023 prisoner exchange and returned to Venezuela.

Venezuela’s migration agency said it deported him to the United States in May under acting Venezuelan leader Delcy Rodríguez. He pleaded guilty in September to a global money laundering conspiracy that skimmed millions of dollars from a Venezuelan public welfare program. He agreed to cooperate with ongoing investigations and forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds from the corruption scheme.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an Oct. 11 post on X that Pulido’s alleged actions showed a blatant disregard for the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs.

DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said his agency and law enforcement partners had pursued Pulido for years.

“Today, that pursuit has brought him to the Southern District of Florida,” Cole said on Oct. 11.

Venezuelan authorities have not publicly commented on the arrest.

Pulido was convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 1997, under the alias of German Enrique Rubio Salas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in a surprise military operation by the United States in January and charged with narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Earlier this month, prosecutors added an additional charge of torture against Maduro and Flores.

They were charged in a superseding indictment, unsealed on Oct. 8, with torturing political opponents and Americans.

Jackson Richman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.