MIAMI (AP) – Authorities in Venezuela have brought corruption charges against a businessman who is a fugitive in a separate U.S.money laundering case targeting a top ally of the country’s president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n
Alvaro Pulido, wearing an orange jumpsuit and handcuffed, was among a group of seven Venezuelan officials and businessmen escorted by a masked security agent on their way to an initial judicial hearing in Caracas in images shared Friday by Venezuela’s government.<\/p>\n
The men were taken into custody as part of a into corruption in the state-run oil company PDVSA focused on the payment of massive bribes in exchange for lucrative contracts to move tankers of Venezuelan crude sanctioned by the U.S.<\/p>\n
Pulido stands out among the more than 50 alleged schemers already arrested because of his relationship to <\/p>\n
The two Colombians were long-time business partners who made a fortune selling food and other items to Venezuela’s socialist government over the past decade.The two were criminally charged together in 2019 by federal prosecutors in Miami for allegedly siphoning off $350 million from state contracts to build low income housing. Saab was arrested on a U.S. warrant a year later while en route to Iran.<\/p>\n
Pulido’s arrest in Venezuela, which had been rumored for weeks but not confirmed until now, has no direct relationship to the U.S.criminal case.<\/p>\n
But it nonetheless could complicate Saab’s argument that he is a entitled to immunity from prosecution in the U.S., said John Feeley, a former U.S.Ambassador to Panama with decades of experience working in Latin America<\/a>. That issue is set to be<\/p>\n “With Pulido’s arrest, Saab’s defense begins to crumble,” Feeley said. “He will now have a hard time insisting on diplomatic status when his business partner is facing corruption charges in Caracas.”<\/p>\n A federal district judge in Miami has already ruled that Saab is unable to shield himself from criminal charges and must stand EVDen eve naKLiyaT<\/a> trial.His lawyers have appealed the decision and argue that documents and letters he was purportedly carrying at the time of his arrest during a refueling stop in Cape Verde prove he was conducting official business on behalf of Maduro’s government.<\/p>\n A group pushing for Saab’s immediate release issued a statement in Caracas expressing “total support” for the latest crackdown and distancing the “diplomat” from Pulido.<\/p>\n It was not immediately possible to locate an attorney for Pulido.<\/p>\n But Joe Schuster, an attorney for Saab, said the Venezuelan investigation into Pulido had “absolutely nothing” to do with his client.<\/p>\n “It is also our understanding that the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela continues to fully support Special Envoy Saab,” the Miami-based attorney said, referring to Saab’s purported diplomatic status as an intermediary in trade deals between Iran and Venezuela.<\/p>\n Corruption has long plagued Venezuela.The OPEC nation was the fourth-most corrupt in the world in the latest rankings by Transparency International.<\/p>\n Opportunities for graft have proliferated as a result of U.S. If you are you looking for more information on EVdeN EVe nakliyaT<\/a> look into our web page. sanctions, EvDEN eVE nAKLiYAT<\/a> which has scared away more established oil companies and opened the door for murky middlemen who purchase the crude at a steep discount and transport their valuable cargo on so-called ghost tankers that hide their locations from satellite tracking systems.<\/p>\n