The Daily Journal.— Former Venezuelan Industries Minister Alex Saab plans to plead guilty Tuesday before a federal court in Miami in a money laundering case involving government food-import contracts, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
Saab, 54, will appear before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams for a change-of-plea hearing, according to court records cited by AP.
Authorities have not disclosed the terms of the plea agreement, and his attorney, Neil Schuster, declined to comment.
The Colombian businessman faces one money laundering charge stemming from an alleged scheme that, according to U.S. prosecutors, involved creating shell companies, falsifying shipping documents, and diverting funds from Venezuelan government contracts intended to import food from Colombia and Mexico.
The investigation centers on the CLAP program, which the Maduro government created to distribute basic goods amid a severe economic crisis. According to the indictment, Saab and others allegedly used the scheme to access public funds and expand their influence within the Venezuelan government apparatus, including funds linked to oil sales by state-owned PDVSA.
From Maduro ally to defendant in Miami
The Delcy Rodríguez administration deported Saab from Venezuela in May. U.S. authorities had investigated the businessman for more than a decade, and he had already faced charges in 2019 during Donald Trump’s first administration.
Authorities in Cape Verde detained him in 2020 during a refueling stop. At the time, the Venezuelan government maintained that Saab was traveling on a high-level humanitarian mission to Iran.
Then-U.S. President Joe Biden later granted Saab a pardon in 2023 as part of an agreement that secured the release of several Americans detained in Venezuela.
