Former Venezuelan government envoy to Antigua and Barbuda Alex Saab has pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiring to launder proceeds from a bribery and fraud scheme linked to Venezuela’s food and medicine programme.
Saab, a former Minister of Industry in the regime of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to launder proceeds of what U.S. authorities describe as a massive bribery and fraud scheme spanning Venezuela and the United States.
According to court documents, Saab carried out a nearly decade-long conspiracy to corruptly profit from a Venezuelan public welfare programme for food and medicine known as Comité Local de Abastecimiento y Producción, or CLAP.
As part of his plea, Saab admitted to organising a system of bribes and other illegal payments to public officials so that entities secretly controlled by the conspirators could be awarded lucrative contracts from the Venezuelan government to import food and medicine under the CLAP programme.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the conspirators did not fully deliver on the contracts. Instead, they allegedly used fake companies, false invoices, false shipping records and other fraudulent documents to skim hundreds of millions of dollars for themselves and their associates, while concealing their association with the illegal activity and avoiding detection.
Saab further admitted that he used shell companies outside Venezuela to launder proceeds of the conspiracy around the world, including to the United States.
A sentencing date has not been set. Saab faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
FBI Director Kash Patel said criminals who stole from the people of Venezuela and sought to exploit and misuse American financial institutions to fund illicit activities would be held accountable.
“Criminals like Alex Saab who stole from the people of Venezuela and worked to exploit and misuse American financial institutions to fund illicit activities will be held accountable by this FBI,” Patel said. “The message is clear – under the leadership of the Trump administration, this FBI will work with our partners to deploy all necessary resources to protect the integrity of U.S. financial institutions and track down those who profit from these criminal operations.”
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said Saab had exploited the U.S. financial system through what he described as a complex network of front companies, shell accounts and false records.
“Alex Saab exploited the U.S. financial system to profit off the backs of the Venezuelan people,” Duva said. “He created a complex web of front companies, shell accounts, and false records to perpetuate his scheme, win lucrative public contracts, and line his own pockets as well as his conspirators. The Criminal Division has held Saab accountable and will do the same for others seeking to abuse the U.S. economy for their own gain.”
DEA Administrator Terry Cole said the plea agreement represented a disruption to what he described as illicit financial networks supporting narcoterrorism and political corruption.
“Today’s plea agreement signifies a substantial disruption to the illicit financial networks supporting narcoterrorism and political corruption,” Cole said.
Cole added that the DEA had long investigated financial crimes and networks tied to Saab and his relationship with the former Maduro regime.
Saab’s Antigua Connection
The guilty plea brings renewed attention to Saab’s past relationship with Antigua and Barbuda, where he was appointed an economic envoy under the Gaston Browne administration in 2014.
Saab was made a citizen through the country’s Citizenship by Investment Programme, given Antigua and Barbuda diplomatic credentials.
He also had a government-backed contract to build a factory in Antigua to manufacture housing panels, but the factory never opened.
Last month, Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Gaston Browne defended his government’s appointment of Saab as an economic envoy, saying countries sometimes select people in good faith who later “turn out to be crooks”.
Browne maintained that Saab’s appointment was legitimate when it was made.
The relationship also came under scrutiny following revelations in the FinCEN Files, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in 2020.
The files revealed that from 2016 onwards, banks had reported Saab to the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, for suspicious transactions from the Global Bank of Commerce in Antigua.
“In December 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden granted Alex Saab clemency while he was awaiting trial in this district, and Saab was released from federal custody and returned to Venezuela.
But the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason A. Reding Quiñones, said Saab’s earlier release from U.S. custody did not end the case.
He said his office built a new criminal case, secured a new indictment in January 2026 and, working with federal and international partners, brought Saab back before a federal court in Miami on May 18.
“Today, he is accepting responsibility for his crimes,” Quiñones said.
He said Saab had exploited programmes intended to provide critical food and medicine to Venezuelans, bribed government officials and used shell companies and the U.S. financial system to move and conceal criminal proceeds.
“This case sends a clear message: political connections, wealth, and proximity to a corrupt regime will not put anyone beyond the reach of American justice,” Quiñones said.