Maduro Regime Ally Charged With Money Laundering Over Venezuelan Food Program

An associate of the former Maduro regime has been charged with a money laundering conspiracy, federal prosecutors announced on May 18.

Alex Nain Saab Moran, 55, a Colombian national who once served as Venezuela’s minister of industry and national production, appeared in federal court in the Southern District of Florida after Homeland Security Task Force agents took him into custody. Venezuelan authorities had deported him to the United States two days earlier, prosecutors said.

Saab is accused of conspiring to launder monetary instruments, according to an indictment unsealed on May 18. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

Prosecutors said Saab exploited a Venezuelan government program created to deliver food to vulnerable Venezuelans. Saab and others allegedly used bribes, shell companies, and fake documents to divert hundreds of millions of dollars that were supposed to buy food supplies.

“Alex Saab allegedly used American banks to launder hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from a Venezuelan food program meant for the poor and proceeds from the illegal sale of Venezuelan oil,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement. “This is unacceptable. The Criminal Division will not allow foreign actors to exploit the American financial system and use it as a safe haven for the proceeds of their corruption.”

An attorney for Saab could not be reached.

Venezuela deported Saab on May 16 after he had been implicated in the commission of various crimes in the United States, according to Venezuela’s migration agency, the Administrative Service for Identification, Migration, and Foreign Affairs.

Court records describe a years-long scheme that allegedly began with bribes paid to Venezuelan public officials to win contracts under the Comité Local de Abastecimiento y Producción, known as CLAP. The program was aimed at importing and distributing food to those in need across Venezuela.

Instead of fulfilling the agreements as required, Saab and his associates allegedly created a network of shell companies and generated fraudulent invoices, falsified shipping records, and fabricated other paperwork. They falsely claimed that the food came from Colombia and Mexico, authorities said. The operation allowed them to pocket money that should have purchased actual supplies for Venezuelan citizens.

Some of the funds moved through U.S. bank accounts, giving American prosecutors jurisdiction.

The indictment alleges that the conspiracy ran from 2019 through at least January.

As U.S. sanctions restricted Venezuelan oil exports and strained the country’s finances, the scheme supposedly expanded. Saab and others allegedly gained access to billions of dollars’ worth of petroleum owned by state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA.

They allegedly sold the oil under false pretenses, then routed the proceeds through U.S. financial channels to hide the origin and to keep the CLAP operation going.

“This indictment alleges that a humanitarian food program intended to support vulnerable Venezuelans was instead manipulated for massive personal enrichment,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in a statement. “According to the charges, the defendant used bribery, shell companies, and fraudulent documents to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars for personal gain. When illicit proceeds are moved through the United States financial system, our courts have jurisdiction and our prosecutors will act.”

Saab maintained close ties to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro for years. He served as president of the country’s International Center for Productive Investment and appeared publicly alongside Maduro as recently as January 2024.

The CLAP initiative formed part of broader government efforts to address food shortages. Prosecutors say that corruption turned the welfare program into a vehicle for personal profit while many Venezuelans struggled.