Cape Verde Court Approves Extradition of Maduro’s Ally to the US
A Cape Verdean court ruled Monday that Colombian businessman and Venezuelan special envoy Alex Saab may be extradited to the United States, where he faces money laundering charges in connection with a bribery scheme allegedly related to the president. The government of Nicolás Maduro.
U. Prosecutors filed money laundering charges against Saab in 2019 in connection with a scheme to pay bribes to take advantage of the exchange rate controlled by the Venezuelan government.
According to prosecutors, Saab and its partner Álvaro Pulido Vargas obtained a contract with the government to build housing units for low-income people, which allowed them to take advantage of the exchange rate controlled by the government of Venezuela, under which they could obtain US dollars at a favorable rate by the filing of false import documents for goods they never imported.
They bribed Venezuelan government officials to approve those documents and transferred approximately $ 350 million outside of Venezuela, via the United States, to their accounts abroad, according to the indictment.
At the same time, the United States Department of the Treasury put Saab and several of its associates brought under sanctions for their alleged participation in a food processor. Saab allegedly ran a complicated network of shell companies that laundered money obtained from overpriced government contracts destined for food subsidies.
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The 48-year-old Colombian, often described as the leader of President Maduro, was arrested last June at an Interpol. red notice ”when his plane stopped in the African archipelago to refuel. He was heading to Iran as Maduro’s special envoy to negotiate food, medical supplies, and other goods. blocked the WikiLeaks founder’s extradition on the same day Cape Verde approved Saab’s, although the Madrid-based law firm representing both used the same arguments.
“A significant number of the arguments we make in our defense have been accepted today “However, those same arguments have fallen on deaf ears in Barlavento (Cape Verde),” added Pinto Monteiro by a U. court in its decision to refuse to extradite Julian Assange to the United States, “he said. Pinto Monteiro. Had asked Cape Verde in December to allow Saab to celebrate Christmas with his family and respect the decision of the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and put h I am under house arrest.
“There is no doubt that the arrest of Special Envoy Alex Saab is part of the obsessive siege campaign, orchestrated by the dying outgoing United States government against Venezuela la, with the aim of inflicting more suffering on Venezuelan people and destabilizing their institutions and the internal order, ”said the Office statement.
Saab’s lawyers will appeal the extradition sentence before the Supreme Court of Justice of the West African country and They said they will take the necessary actions, both nationally and internationally, to free him.
OCCRP / TechConflict.Com