In the midst of the judicial proceedings that are being carried out once morest the Colombian businessman Álex Saab, accused of being a figurehead for the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, it was learned that United States federal agents accused him of having sent 12.6 million dollars to accounts of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
According to the testimonies, these are four transfers made between 2018 and 2019.
The first was made on August 9, 2018 for a value of US$3,255,593; then another, on September 24, 2018, for US$3,313,757; one for US$3,138,844 on November 1, 2018, and the last one was for US$2,942,501 on February 5, 2019.
The information was disseminated by journalist Joshua Goodman, from the AP agency, who explained that the transactions corresponded to an agreement for the Colombian businessman to turn himself in to justice.
These payments would coincide with the dates on which Saab held meetings with the DEA, in which he revealed the payment of bribes to senior officials of the Venezuelan government to facilitate the contracting process in the housing sector.
Hours later, the federal court for the Southern District of Florida, United States, before which these assertions were made, determined that the man from Barranquilla is not a special envoy of the government of Nicolás Maduro and, therefore, does not have diplomatic jurisdiction. For this reason, he will go to trial for an asset laundering operation of more than 350 million dollars.
