In brief
Police in the United States have arrested 62‑year‑old Colombian national Álvaro Pulido, accused of laundering more than $2 billion in funds siphoned from Venezuela’s state‑run oil company PDVSA. Pulido was held in Venezuelan custody since March 2023 but is now in the US under indictment for bribery and money‑laundering schemes that involved subsidizing food and medicine contracts for the country’s poor. Prosecutors say he and four co‑defendants overcharged the Venezuelan government, funneling profits through overseas bank accounts, including ones in Florida, and worked with former minister Alex Saab on a separate $350 million laundering effort. This arrest comes just two months after Saab pleaded guilty in a U.S. court, following his extradition after the regime’s crackdown on opposition figures. Pulido is scheduled to appear in federal court in early November.
Álvaro Pulido, 62, a Colombian national, was arrested by a U.S. Homeland Security Task Force on Sunday. He faces two federal indictments that allege he laundered more than $2 billion diverted from Venezuela’s oil giant PDVSA. Pulido had been in Venezuelan custody since March 2023 after accusations of siphoning state‑funded welfare money.
Pulido’s arrest was announced by the U.S. Department of Justice without details on how he was moved from Venezuela to the United States. The DEA and the State Department had previously offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Investigators say he and four co‑defendants bribed Venezuelan officials to secure contracts for subsidised food and medicine for the poor, overcharging the government and routing the excess through bank accounts abroad, notably in Florida. Prosecutors also allege Pulido worked with ex‑minister Alex Saab to launder $350 million through a separate bribery scheme involving Venezuela’s foreign currency system.
Saab, a close ally of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, pleaded guilty to money‑laundering charges in a U.S. court last month after the U.S. seized Maduro in a Caracas raid and extradited Saab. The crackdown on the Venezuelan regime’s power network has intensified, with the interim government removing Saab from office and sending him to the United States.
Pulido is due to appear in federal court on Tuesday, pending a hearing scheduled for early November. His case exemplifies the growing U.S. effort to dismantle corruption networks that siphon public funds from Latin American states.
