Alvaro Pulido, a fugitive tied to Venezuela’s former Maduro government with a $10 million U.S. reward on his head, is in American custody and is due in a Miami federal courtroom Tuesday.
Story Highlights
- Pulido, a 62-year-old Colombian businessman, faces 13 money laundering charges in two federal cases in Florida.
- Prosecutors say he bribed officials to win about $1.6 billion in Venezuelan food and medicine contracts.
- The DEA and the State Department had offered up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest.
- His longtime business partner, Alex Saab, pleaded guilty in a related case in September and agreed to cooperate.
Prosecutors say Pulido and his partners bribed Venezuelan officials to win government contracts meant to feed and care for ordinary families, then padded the prices to cover the payoffs. They say the money was then laundered, meaning it was moved through a chain of banks and companies to hide where it came from, and that some of it passed through U.S. banks.
A Homeland Security Task Force spokesperson announced on Sunday, October 11, that Pulido was in U.S. custody after an investigation led by the DEA, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Tuesday, October 13, in federal court in Miami. Officials have not said where or how he was taken into custody, and reports have included no comment from a lawyer for Pulido.
The $1.6 Billion Food Program Case
The first case, filed in 2021, centers on CLAP, a Venezuelan government-run program that handed out subsidized food and medicine to families during years of shortages. Prosecutors allege that from about July 2015 through at least 2020, Pulido and his associates bribed officials to win roughly $1.6 billion in CLAP contracts.
Prosecutors say about $17.3 million in bribes and illicit payments went to a former Venezuelan state governor, Jose Gregorio Vielma-Mora, and a middleman, and that roughly $180 million moved through or into the United States. Pulido’s son, Emmanuel Enrique Rubio Gonzalez, is also charged. Pulido faces five charges in this case, each carrying up to 20 years in federal prison.
The Housing Case And The $350 Million
The second case, filed in 2019, charges Pulido alongside Saab, also a Colombian businessman. Prosecutors say the two men submitted false paperwork for low-cost housing imports that never entered Venezuela, bribed officials to approve it, and moved about $350 million out of Venezuela through U.S. banks into overseas accounts from about November 2011 through at least September 2015. Pulido faces eight charges in that case.
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, deported Saab to the United States in May. In September, he pleaded guilty in a related bribery case, agreed to cooperate against former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and others, and agreed to give up $195 million in criminal proceeds.
Who Pulido Is
The Justice Department says Pulido also used the name German Enrique Rubio Salas, and that under that name he was convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 1997. He was arrested in Venezuela in 2023 during a corruption crackdown at PDVSA, the country’s state oil company. That crackdown was led by Rodríguez, who was then Maduro’s vice president.
Why It Matters
Attorney General Todd Blanche, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, announced the arrest on X. “His alleged actions show a blatant disregard to the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs,” he wrote. He added, “No amount of time or distance will stop @TheJusticeDept from working with our federal law enforcement.”
Prosecutors say money meant for hungry families was washed through American banks. The charges are accusations, and Pulido is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. Venezuelan authorities had not commented on the arrest as of Sunday.
Sources:
foxnews.com, justice.gov, upi.com
