In brief
A 62‑year‑old Colombian businessman, Álvaro Pulido, has been arrested in the United States after prosecutors charged him with laundering more than $2 billion in money siphoned from a Venezuelan government welfare program. Pulido, who had been jailed in Venezuela since 2023, is linked to a wider bribery scheme that implicated co‑defendants and Colombian businessman Alex Saab. The win comes after the DEA and State Department offered a $10 million reward, and follows the seizure of former Venezuelan official Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces and Saab’s exit from the government. Pulido is slated to appear in court Tuesday, with additional proceedings expected as authorities pursue a multi‑nation financial trail.
Alvaro Pulido, a 62‑year‑old colleague of well‑known Venezuelan‑backed businessman Alex Saab, was detained in the United States on Sunday by a Homeland Security Task Force. He faces double federal indictments for allegedly laundering more than $2 billion that were siphoned from a Venezuelan government welfare program.
Pulido has been held in Venezuelan jail since March 2023 on charges that he diverted state‑run oil company PDVSA profits. The U.S. Department of Justice said no further details were available about how he ended up in American custody, but the DEA and State Department had offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
The paper claims Pulido, along with four co‑defendants, bribed Venezuelan officials to secure contracts for food and medicine supplies to poor Venezuelans, overcharging the state and sending the proceeds through bank accounts overseas, including in the U.S. Prosecutors also accuse him of working with Saab to launder $350 million from a bribery scheme involving Venezuela’s currency exchange system via Florida accounts.
Saab, a former minister of industry under Nicolás Maduro, previously pleaded guilty to money‑laundering charges last month. The U.S. raid that seized Maduro in January and later extradited Saab demonstrated the reach of U.S. law enforcement in dismantling the network behind Venezuela’s illicit financial schemes.
Pulido is expected to appear in court on Tuesday, as authorities continue to excavate a multi‑country money‑laundering operation tied to the Venezuelan regime’s internal bribery.
