In brief
US authorities detained Álvaro Pulido, a 62‑year‑old Colombian businessman, on Sunday in a domestic operation. Pulido faces two federal indictments alleging he laundered more than $2 billion linked to Venezuelan government bribery schemes. He had previously been imprisoned in Venezuela since March 2023 for diverting PDVSA profits. The arrest comes just months after fellow Venezuelan‑backed businessman Alex Saab pleaded guilty to similar charges in the U.S. Prosecutors contend Pulido and Saab used bank accounts in Florida to launder hundreds of millions of dollars.
Alvaro Pulido, 62, was arrested on Sunday by a Homeland Security Task Force, according to the US Department of Justice. The move came as part of a broader crackdown on a multi‑billion‑dollar scheme that allegedly siphoned funds from a Venezuelan welfare program.
Pulido had been jailed in Venezuela since March 2023 after authorities accused him of diverting profits from PDVSA, the state‑run oil company. The US Drug Enforcement Administration and State Department had offered a $10 million reward for information that would lead to his arrest.
He is slated to appear before a federal court on Tuesday, prosecutors said, in two separate indictments that allege he laundered more than $2 billion stemming from bribery schemes that involved Venezuelan officials and paid for food and medicine contracts for impoverished citizens.
Pulido is alleged to have overcharged the government and funneled the proceeds through banking networks abroad, including in the United States. In addition, prosecutors claim he worked with Alex Saab to launder $350 million from a bribery operation related to Venezuela’s currency exchange system via Florida accounts.
Saab, a powerful figure in the Venezuelan administration, was stripped of his ministerial role after Maduro was seized by US forces in a January raid and later extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty last month.
The arrest underscores the US Justice Department’s relentless pursuit of corrupt networks that extend beyond Venezuelan borders, targeting high‑profile figures entrenched in the country’s finance and political apparatus.
