MIAMI.-A DEA businessman who investigated the Colombian-Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab was sentenced to six months in prison by the US justice system, for having hidden 17 million dollars for payments of bribes what the ally of the regime did Nicolas Maduro for money laundering activities, according to court charges in 2021.
With this sentence, Orlando Contreras, who worked with the DEA since 2019 to investigate corruption in Venezuela, becomes the only prisoner of those involved in the Saab case, who was granted a pardon by President Joe Biden and was released. , in an exchange agreed with Maduro.
“Everyone left,” said District Court Judge Rodolfo Ruiz. “Contreras is the only one who decided to stay and face justice,” Ruiz added, expressing his frustration that the informant’s cooperation with the police forces “was of no use.”
Saab, Maduro’s alleged figurehead, has been in Venezuela since December 2023, when the conspiracy charges, which implied 20 years in prison, were annulled by the US government, and is currently president of the International Center for Productive Investment of Venezuela .
The Venezuelan regime alleged, during a persistent campaign seeking his freedom, that there was no Interpol arrest warrant against Saab when he was detained in Cape Verde in 2021.
Involved in bribes in the Saab case
In October 2021, the US Department of Justice reported that a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida indicted three Colombian citizens and two Venezuelans for their alleged participation in “the laundering of income from food supply contracts.” and medicines to Venezuela, obtained through bribes, through the Local Supply and Production Committee (CLAP), a food and medicine distribution program.
The defendants, according to court documents, are Alvaro Pulido Vargasalias Germán Enrique Rubio Salas, alias Cuchi, 57 years old, from Colombia; José Gregorio Vielma-Morathen governor, 55 years old, of Venezuela; Emmanuel Enrique Rubio Gonzalez32 years old, from Colombia; Carlos Rolando Lizcano Manrique50 years old, from Colombia; and Ana Guillermo Luis49 years old, from Venezuela.
The Justice Department also noted that “the defendants and their accomplices knowingly inflated contract costs to pay bribes and unjustly enrich themselves. The indictment also alleges that the co-conspirators directed funds to further the bribery scheme while in the United States, and transferred money related to the scheme to bank accounts in the Southern District of Florida.”
Álvaro Pulido Vargas, linked to Saab, is imprisoned in Venezuela for the corruption plot revealed by the regime in the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) in 2023, with which former minister Tarek El Aissami is linked, of whom the regime does not explains his disappearance.
Contreras, the only detainee in the US
Orlando Contreras, a businessman whose details are not given, made high-risk trips to Venezuela with the DEA to gather evidence against Saab and also Vielma Mora, prosecutors said during the process.
Saab and Vielma were monitored through a secret DEA espionage program that consisted of sending undercover informants to Venezuela to surreptitiously record and file criminal charges against Maduro’s associates.
Saab, imprisoned after being transferred to the United States, and Vielma, who remains a fugitive from justice, were charged in the trial with conspiracy, but in separate files, so Saab could be released and exchanged for prisoners of American nationality who remained imprisoned. In Venezuela.
Judge Ruiz said he was convinced to grant Contreras more clemency than the government recommended because of the risks he took in searching for Saab.
A plot involving the Maduro regime
According to published information, Contreras acknowledged when pleading guilty in 2023 that he received $17 million between 2016 and 2019 to facilitate the delivery of bribes in exchange for government contracts awarded to Saab and his partner for $1.6 billion.
The contracts were to import medicines and food during those years of humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, in which food and medicines were not freely available. They offered CLAP bags and medications in Social Security programs.
But those involved inflated prices of basic items charged to the State of Venezuela and used the additional amount to pay bribes to officials, according to reports.
Contreras told the judge that he was an intermediary for Vielma, and that he transferred 11 million dollars to accounts abroad on instructions from the then governor of Táchira.
In addition, he reported that he kept the remaining amount for himself, but that “he has transferred it to the US government.”
To date he has handed over more than $650,000, two luxury watches and is settling another $100,000, his attorneys said in court.
The defendant also said that during his work in Venezuela he had to experience two episodes of kidnapping, in which he was allegedly beaten and sexually abused.
Source: With information from AP, Infobae, US Department of Justice
