U.S. arrests Colombian with Maduro ties on money laundering charges
Prosecutors say he helped launder more than $2 billion from bribery schemes tied to Venezuelan food, medicine and currency-exchange contracts.
- On Sunday, Colombian businessman Álvaro Pulido Vargas, 62, was arrested during a Homeland Security Task Force operation in the United States and is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
- Prosecutors allege Pulido Vargas and four co-defendants bribed Venezuelan officials to secure contracts with state-run programs including CLAP, then laundered proceeds through international banking systems to conceal the funds' origin.
- The US State Attorney's Office charged the group in two indictments "involving the alleged laundering of more than $2bn in connection with Venezuelan government bribery schemes," with authorities seeking approximately $1.6 billion in forfeiture.
- Pulido's arrest follows the guilty plea two months ago of Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman with close ties to Nicolas Maduro's regime, who was extradited to the United States earlier this year.
- The Drug Enforcement Administration and State Department had previously offered $10m for information leading to Pulido's arrest, while investigators tracked wire transfers totaling more than $6.3 million sent from Panama and Antigua and Barbuda to Florida accounts.
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Maduro ally Alvaro Pulido Vargas arrested, faces Miami court in $2B Venezuelan laundering scheme
MIAMI — Alvaro Pulido Vargas, a Colombian national and associate of the Nicolás Maduro regime accused of laundering more than $2 billion through corrupt Venezuelan government contracts, has been arrested and will make his initial court appearance Tuesday in federal court, officials announced. Pulido, 62, faces two separate federal indictments returned in the Southern District… The post Maduro ally Alvaro Pulido Vargas arrested, faces Miami court…
Álvaro Pulido Vargas was being prosecuted in Venezuela and was in Rodeo 1 prison since April 2023, and 63 others were accused of embezzlement by a millionaire to the state Oils of Venezuela (Pdvsa). Blanche announced in X that authorities of the U.S. National Security Task Force "arrested" Pulido Vargas, who "faces two separate federal accusations in the United States, from 2019 and 2021, related to alleged money laundering schemes and bribes fo…
CBS Austin
Maduro regime ally arrested in alleged $2B bribery, money laundering schemes
He is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday.
Maduro-Linked Fugitive Faces Florida Court Over Massive Venezuela Bribery And Laundering Scheme
A Colombian businessman is scheduled to appear in a South Florida federal courtroom after being named in a money laundering indictment tied theNicolás Maduro’s regime and Venezuelan state contracts, according to court records filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Alvaro Pulido Vargas, also known as German Enrique Rubio Salas […] Maduro-Linked Fugitive Faces Florida Court Over Massive Venezuela Bribery And Launder…
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