Crime
Businessman tied to Venezuelan dictator was a DEA informant, documents show
As part of his cooperation agreement, the crooked businessman wired three payments worth approximately $10 million –- obtained through corruption -- to a DEA-controlled account
February 16, 2022 5:28pm
Updated: December 26, 2022 5:36pm
Colombian businessman Alex Saab, the Venezuelan regime’s alleged front man, served as an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2018, revealing information about bribes he paid to top officials in dictator Nicolas Maduro’s socialist regime, court documents show.
One court document reveals the signature of prosecutor Kurt K. Lunkenheimer, dated February 2021, where he describes “Saab Morán’s cooperation with law enforcement before being indicted in Florida’s Southern District.” The documents further describe meetings between Saab and various DEA agents in the United States, Colombia and Europe where Saab disclosed secrets about the regime’s financial affairs.
As part of his cooperation agreement, the crooked businessman wired three payments worth approximately $10 million – obtained through corruption – to a DEA-controlled account.
In a June 2, 2018 meeting, Saab delivered DEA agents a report in which he described the bribe payments received by Venezuelan officials, as well as other instances where bribes were paid for food import contracts as millions of individuals in the South American country starved.
Due to the information he provided, a formal collaboration agreement was signed in June of the same year in which Saab agreed to turn himself in on May 30, 2019.
He was deactivated as a source and criminally charged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida however, after failing to surrender.
Saab will now stand trial for money laundering and conspiracy charges in October 2022.
At a hearing in Miami, the businessman asked for government protection of his wife and children, claiming that his collaboration had endangered them.
Judge Robert N. Scola, however, denied the request after stating the court had not received credible evidence that shows Saab's collaboration with the DEA endangered his family in Venezuela.
Saab currently faces a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering in a Miami court, to which he pleaded "not guilty" on Nov. 15 before Judge Alicia M. Otazo-Reyes.
