Miami federal prosecutors are back to quietly scrutinizing Alex Saab, the Colombian-born businessman long tagged by U.S. authorities as Nicolás Maduro’s “bag man.” The renewed probe is zeroed in on alleged bribery tied to Venezuela’s subsidized food program and traces back to a 2021 Miami case involving one of Saab’s closest associates. His once high-profile public role in Caracas has cratered in recent weeks after he was stripped of a government post, and his current whereabouts are murky.
For months, prosecutors have been digging into Saab’s alleged role in a bribery conspiracy involving Venezuelan government contracts to import food, according to the Associated Press. The revived inquiry leans on evidence surfaced in the 2021 Miami prosecution of Saab’s longtime partner Álvaro Pulido and could help bolster other U.S. corruption cases linked to Caracas. Officials contacted by reporters have declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.
Accounts from Caracas say Saab was seized in an early February operation that involved Venezuela’s intelligence service working with U.S. agents, though his lawyer has denied that claim, as reported by The Guardian. Since the U.S. ouster of Nicolás Maduro in early January, interim leader Delcy Rodríguez has pushed Saab out of key roles, stripping him of several posts and leaving him politically exposed.
Pardon Complicates Prosecution
President Biden granted clemency to Saab in December 2023 as part of a high-profile prisoner swap that brought home 10 Americans and led to the transfer of convicted defense contractor Leonard “Fat Leonard” Francis back into U.S. custody, according to The Washington Post. The deal was structured to secure the release of Americans considered wrongfully detained, but critics argued it undercut long-running U.S. corruption probes. Those political tradeoffs now sit in the background of any renewed legal push involving Saab.
What Investigators Are Looking At
Prosecutors are focusing on allegations that Saab helped steer inflated contracts and kickbacks through Venezuela’s CLAP food-aid program, relying on evidence that emerged from the Pulido case and other Miami court filings, the Associated Press reports. AP says Saab secretly met with the DEA before his 2020 arrest and agreed to forfeit more than $12 million in illicit proceeds. Former federal prosecutors told AP that those details could make him a valuable witness if he were again in U.S. custody. At the same time, legal experts note that bringing fresh charges after a narrowly framed pardon would depend on whether the alleged conduct falls outside the terms of that clemency.
Legal And Political Stakes
Any move to charge or extradite Saab would test the tight legal limits around presidential clemency and ramp up political pressure in both Washington and Miami. Republican senators have publicly pressed the Justice Department to turn over investigative files and Saab’s statements from his time in U.S. custody, highlighting oversight demands that could influence how prosecutors proceed, as outlined by Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office. For now, the Justice Department and FBI are staying silent, and the revived probe is unfolding behind closed doors.
