Venezuela Sends Another Maduro-Linked Businessman to Face Charges in US

A Colombian businessman who operated for years in Venezuela is expected in US court to face criminal charges tied to more than $2 billion in government contracts in the South American nation.

Álvaro Pulido Vargas will make an initial appearance in the US Southern District of Florida on Oct. 13, the Justice Department announced in a statement on Sunday.

Pulido Vargas’s transfer marks another sign of deepening law-enforcement cooperation between Caracas and Washington under acting President Delcy Rodríguez. She has moved to strengthen ties with the Trump administration since the US captured Nicolás Maduro at the start of this year.

Pulido Vargas, 62, was detained in Venezuela in 2023 as part of a sweeping corruption investigation at state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, known as PDVSA. He holds Venezuelan citizenship and was in a prison outside Caracas until his transfer, according to a person familiar with the matter. US authorities confirmed Sunday that he’s in their custody, without disclosing when or how he was transferred.

Pulido Vargas hasn’t publicly commented on the charges. An attorney representing him couldn’t immediately be identified.

Colombian-born Pulido Vargas has in the past gone by Germán Rubio Salas, which US officials say is an alias he used. He was convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 1997 as Rubio Salas.

Caracas has made no public announcement about his transfer or that of a Venezuelan national sent to the US earlier this month. Venezuela’s Information Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Pulido Vargas is at least the second person transferred from Venezuela to the US this month and the third this year. The handovers have sent shockwaves through those affiliated with the ruling socialist movement known as Chavismo, as Washington seeks custody of dozens of government insiders, including financiers and former senior leaders accused of crimes in the US.

Those sought by US authorities include former Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami, who has been detained in Venezuela since 2024, and ex-Supreme Court Chief Justice Maikel Moreno.

Pulido Vargas’ Venezuelan citizenship raises fresh questions about how Caracas is carrying out the transfer since Venezuela’s constitution prohibits the extradition of its citizens.

Pulido Vargas stands accused of participating in money-laundering and bribery schemes involving government programs for food, medicine and low-income housing during Maduro’s presidency.

“His alleged actions show a blatant disregard to the Venezuelan people,” US Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a Sunday post on X. He went on to accuse him of exploiting government programs intended to provide essential goods for personal enrichment.

Pulido Vargas faces two separate US indictments filed in 2019 and 2021. The US offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the businessman’s arrest.

Alex Saab, once one of Maduro’s closest financial advisers and a former minister, was deported from Venezuela to the US in May after months of negotiations between the two governments. Last month, the Colombian national who later obtained Venezuelan citizenship pleaded guilty to a money-laundering charge involving government food-import contracts and oil sales.

In one case, prosecutors allege that Pulido Vargas and four associates secured approximately $1.6 billion in Venezuelan government contracts through the so-called CLAP food-distribution program by bribing officials and inflating prices. They allegedly transferred about $180 million through or to US bank accounts, including in Florida, according to the Justice Department.

A separate indictment accuses Pulido Vargas and Saab of laundering approximately $350 million through a scheme involving government contracts to build low-income housing. US prosecutors allege that the two submitted fraudulent import documents and bribed Venezuelan officials to approve them, exploiting the country’s tightly controlled currency exchange system.

Venezuelan authorities had explored ways to annul Saab’s citizenship to circumvent the constitutional prohibition on extraditing nationals, and later said it had been obtained illegally. It remains unclear whether authorities took similar steps in Pulido Vargas’s case.

Earlier this month, Venezuelan national Aníbal Alexander Canelón Aguirre was sent to the US to face charges including conspiracy to commit bank fraud and providing material support to terrorists.

Since taking over from Maduro, Rodríguez has increasingly cooperated with Washington, realigning her government with Washington’s priorities including opening Venezuela’s oil sector to greater US involvement.