MIAMI (AP) 鈥� A close ally of ousted Venezuelan President was charged Monday with bribing top officials to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from lucrative contracts to import food at a time of widespread hardship in the South American country.
made his initial court appearance after being deported over the weekend by as part of a purge of insider businessmen who are believed to have enriched themselves through corrupt dealings with Maduro.
Shackled and wearing a beige prison uniform, Saab answered 鈥淵es, ma’am,鈥� in English after being asked by a federal judge in Miami whether he understood the charges against him: a single count of money laundering tied to a decade-old conspiracy to create fake companies, falsify shipping records and skim from government contracts to import food from Colombia and Mexico.
Saab, 54, was previously charged during the first Trump administration in 2019 and then arrested during a refueling stop in Cape Verde on what the Venezuelan government described as a high-level humanitarian mission to Iran.
But President Joe Biden pardoned him in 2023 in exchange for the release of several in Venezuela. The deal, part of a failed effort by the Biden White House to lure Maduro into holding a free presidential election, was harshly criticized by Republicans and federal law enforcement officials, who immediately began investigating Saab for other alleged crimes not covered by the narrowly tailored pardon.
Venezuela’s interior minister defends Saab’s deportation
U.S. officials have long described Saab as Maduro’s 鈥渂ag man鈥� and could ask him to serve as a valuable character witness against his former protector, who is awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan after being captured in a raid by the U.S. military in January.
The new U.S. prosecution of Saab is taking place against the backdrop of the Trump administration鈥檚 efforts to overhaul relations with Venezuela.
Trump and senior administration officials have heaped praise on Rodr铆guez, who has thrown open Venezuela’s oil industry to U.S. investment at a time of surging oil prices tied to the . In exchange, the White House has dampened talk of elections, which are required by Venezuela’s constitution within 30 days of the president becoming 鈥減ermanently unavailable.鈥�
But Rodr铆guez faces enormous domestic pressures from the more radical, ideological wing of the ruling socialist party, some of whom, like , wield great influence inside Venezuelan security forces and face criminal charges themselves in the U.S.
Mario Silva, who for years spread pro-government propaganda as the host of a program on state TV before being removed from the airwaves after Maduro’s capture, questioned the legality of Saab’s removal, saying it violates a constitutional ban on extradition.
鈥淭he imperialists don’t negotiate. They conquer, test and probe 鈥� until our country shatters,鈥� said Silva in a livestream posted Sunday on social media. 鈥淣obody is safe right now.鈥�
Cabello, for his part, expressed support for Saab’s deportation, saying he had obtained his Venezuela national ID through illegal means.
Perhaps anticipating blowback, Venezuela’s immigration authority, SAIME, in a statement Saturday referred to Saab only as a 鈥淐olombian citizen” implicated in several criminal investigations in the U.S. Rodr铆guez on state TV Monday echoed those sentiments, saying she was committed to defending Venezuela’s national interests.
Lawyers say Saab helped DEA untangle corruption in Maduro鈥檚 inner circle
Rodr铆guez heaped on Saab a few years ago during the international campaign Venezuela’s government mounted to free him from U.S. custody. Serving then as Maduro’s vice president, she described Saab as an 鈥渋nnocent Venezuelan diplomat鈥� who had been illegally 鈥渒idnapped鈥� by the U.S.
But as Rodr铆guez cements her rule, she has distanced herself from Saab, and stripping him of his role as the main conduit for foreign companies looking to invest in Venezuela.
Saab amassed a fortune through Venezuelan government contracts. The indictment against him in 2019 was tied to a government contract for low-income housing that was never built.
The new indictment stems from another case the Justice Department brought against Saab鈥檚 longtime partner over the set up by Maduro to provide staples 鈥� rice, corn flour, cooking oil 鈥� to poor Venezuelans at a time of rampant hyperinflation and a crumbling currency.
Saab had been identified in the 2021 indictment as 鈥淐o-Conspirator 1鈥� and allegedly helped set up a web of companies used to bribe a pro-Maduro governor who awarded the business partners a contract to import food boxes from Mexico at an inflated price.
As U.S. sanctions crippled Venezuela鈥檚 foreign trade, Saab and others allegedly expanded their corrupt influence deep inside the Maduro government, accessing billions of dollars in oil sales from state-run oil company PDVSA, prosecutors said in a five-page indictment unsealed Monday.
Now in U.S. custody, he could be asked to testify against his former protector 鈥� something he has considered in the past.
Saab before his first arrest and, in a closed-door court hearing in 2022, his lawyers revealed that the businessman for years had helped the DEA untangle corruption in Maduro鈥檚 inner circle. As part of that cooperation, he forfeited more than $12 million in illegal proceeds from dirty business dealings.
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AP writer Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
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This story is part of an investigation that includes the FRONTLINE documentary 鈥淐risis in Venezuela,鈥� which aired Feb. 10, 2026, on PBS. Watch the documentary at , in the and on .
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