Álvaro Pulido: US detains man accused in multi-billion Venezuelan cash laundering scheme

A Colombian man needed for allegedly laundering cash that had been illegally syphoned off a Venezuelan authorities welfare plan has been detained in the US.

The US Division of Justice stated Álvaro Pulido, 62, had been arrested throughout a Homeland Safety Job Pressure operation on Sunday, however didn’t present additional particulars as to how he ended up in US custody.

Pulido had been in jail in Venezuela since March 2023 accused of diverting income from the state-run oil firm PDVSA.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and State Division had been providing a reward of $10m (£7.5m) for info resulting in his arrest.

He is because of seem in courtroom on Tuesday, based on a press release launched by the US Legal professional’s Workplace.

Pulido’s arrest comes simply two months after Alex Saab, one other Colombian businessman with shut ties to the Venezuelan authorities, pleaded responsible to cash laundering fees in a US courtroom.

The US State Legal professional’s Workplace stated that Pulido had been charged in two separate federal indictments “involving the alleged laundering of greater than $2bn (£1.5bn) in reference to Venezuelan authorities bribery schemes”.

US prosecutors say Pulido, together with 4 different co-defendants, bribed Venezuelan authorities officers to safe contracts to offer poor Venezuelans with meals and medication.

They accuse Pulido of wildly overcharging the Venezuelan authorities and laundering the income by way of financial institution accounts overseas, together with within the US.

In addition they allege that Pulido labored with Alex Saab to launder $350m from a separate bribery scheme involving Venezuela’s foreign money alternate system utilizing financial institution accounts in Florida.

Till lately, Saab was a robust determine within the Venezuelan authorities with shut ties to the then-leader, Nicolás Maduro, who named him minister of trade in 2024.

Nevertheless, after Maduro was seized by US forces in a raid on Caracas in January and brought to New York to face trial on drug-trafficking fees, Saab’s destiny shortly modified.

Lower than two weeks after Maduro was seized, the brand new US-backed interim authorities of Venezuela sacked Saab from his publish as minister, and in Might it extradited him to the US.

Final month, Saab pleaded responsible to cash laundering fees.