Biden frees Maduro’s alleged figurehead, Alex Saad

He Colombian businessman Alex Saab, published this Wednesday in the US, he was a contributor for several years President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro, a relationship for which he was accused in Washington of being a “front man” for Venezuelan government who received him today with joy.

The release of Saab (51) is part of an agreement between the US and Venezuela, which in exchange released ten American citizens and twenty Venezuelan prisoners.

Saab, born in Barranquilla (Colombia) and of Lebanese origin, has been linked to several companies, including Group Grand Limited (GGL), accused of supplying Maduro’s government with overpriced food and supplies for the government’s local supply and production committees.

According to investigations, Saab and three of Maduro’s stepsons made “hundreds of millions of dollars” through the program known as CLAP.

Saab has always remained a low profile businessman without much importance in Colombia, Venezuela or the United States. He gained recognition after former Venezuelan prosecutor Luisa Ortega accused him of being one of Maduro’s henchmen in 2017.

However, the initial complaint was made by the portal dedicated to investigative journalism, Armando.info, which indicated months before that Saab was apparently part of a money laundering network that received millions of resources from the fictitious export of food to Venezuela.

Venezuelan media also revealed that in 2011, Saab signed a contract with the government of Hugo Chávez on the procurement of prefabricated houses for the “Housing Mission” plan.

In this situation, Saab sued the portal’s journalists for the alleged crime of defamation and insultwhich is why they were forced to flee Venezuela after receiving threats and their personal information published on social networks, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) reported at the time.

He Colombian businessman He was arrested on June 12, 2020 in Cape Verde when the plane he was traveling in stopped to refuel at Amilcar Cabral International Airport on the island of Sal, following a US request through Interpol for alleged money laundering.

At the time of his arrest, the Venezuelan government indicated that Saab had been appointed in 2018 as a special envoy to carry out official missions in Iran.

He was later extradited to the US in October 2021 on charges of conspiracy to launder money. Saab was also wanted by Colombian authorities for conspiracy to commit a crime, illicit enrichment, fictitious export and import, and aggravated fraud.

According to prosecution in the US, Saab they conspired with others to launder the profits of a bribery-supported corruption network to obtain contracts for the implementation of public projects and to defraud the exchange control system in Venezuela, a crime for which they requested 20 years in prison.

This Wednesday, the Venezuelan executive was celebrating “with joy liberation and return to the homeland” Saab and was received by Maduro at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, hours after he was released to the United States.

Maduro described Saab as a “brave and patriotic man” who “for 40 months resisted the most unfavorable and painful conditions of the kidnapping”, alluding to the time he spent in prison.