Mérida, October 14, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The US Justice Department has charged Colombian businessman Álvaro Pulido Vargas with money laundering after Venezuelan authorities handed him over to US agencies.
US Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Sunday that Pulido had been taken into custody. He was presented in a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, with Southern District of Florida Judge Marty Fulgueira Elfenbein ordering that he remain detained without bail. His arraignment and pre-trial schedule are not presently known.
Pulido is facing multiple counts of money laundering and bribery stemming from separate 2019 and 2021 federal indictments.
US federal prosecutors accuse the businessman of running a web of shell companies through which he siphoned billions of dollars from Venezuelan state contracts. The funds were allegedly routed through bank accounts in multiple foreign jurisdictions before being used to purchase real estate and high-value assets within the US.
In a press conference, US Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department emphasized that “Pulido is charged in two separate, significant money laundering schemes, both using the US financial system to hide the profits from his bribery and greed off the backs of the Venezuelan people.”
“The long arm of the law has caught up with those who chose to line their own pockets while depriving vulnerable populations of essential resources,” Duva added.
Pulido has been labeled as a close associate of former Venezuelan government envoy and Industry Minister Alex Saab, who recently pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. The two Colombian-born businessmen are accused of securing a string of inflated Venezuelan state contracts under the Nicolás Maduro government, including for subsidized food and public housing programs.
Investigative reports and financial audits from international watchdogs have found that the pair often secured procurements with markups exceeding 100 percent of the actual market value. At the same time, Caracas relied on businesspeople such as Saab and Pulido to secure key imports amid wide-reaching US economic sanctions.
Venezuelan authorities have not commented on Pulido’s handover to US agencies and the formal charges.
The 62-year-old businessman had been detained in Venezuela since April 2023 amid the so-called PDVSA-crypto anti-corruption investigation targeting oil export revenues diverted via cryptocurrency circuits created to circumvent US sanctions. However, Pulido was not charged by Venezuelan prosecutors.
Pulido’s case follows the high-profile US case against Saab, who was likewise turned over to US agencies in May. The former government envoy had been previously imprisoned in the US on separate money laundering accusations, leading to a fierce diplomatic and legal battle for his release. Saab returned to Venezuela in December 2023 as part of a high-profile diplomatic prisoner exchange.
Following the US’ January 3 military strikes and kidnapping of Maduro, Saab was removed from his ministerial post and placed under house arrest by domestic authorities before being transferred to US custody.
In September, Saab formally changed his plea to guilty, agreeing to forfeit over $195 million in illicit proceeds and cooperate with federal prosecutors in ongoing investigations into broader alleged Venezuelan corruption networks.
Following the surrender of Saab and Pulido to US authorities, White House correspondent David Alandete claimed that Washington will also seek the arrest of former Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami and former Supreme Court President Maikel Moreno.
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