(CNN Español) — This Wednesday’s seemed like a procedural hearing to set a start date for the trial once morest Alex Saab, Colombian businessman whom the United States authorities consider to be the figurehead of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.
Indeed, a tentative day was set for the start of the trial: it will be October 11. However, following the hearing, the Federal Court of the Southern District of Miami disclosed a judicial document that reports that Saab collaborated as an active and confidential source of the DEA, the United States anti-narcotics agency, between June 27, 2018 and June 31. May 2019, and confessed to paying bribes to Venezuelan officials.
Those documents indicate that Saab was an active source for US authorities and even gave US$10 million to the agency as part of the cooperation agreement.
In May 2019, Saab did not show up for an appointment with DEA officials and did not turn himself in, as scheduled. Consequently, his status as an active and confidential agency source was cancelled.
Court documents explain that this was the reason why the Miami Southern District Attorney’s Office filed charges two months later.
Contacted by CNN, his Miami attorney, Neil Schuster, declined to comment. Instead, his Washington attorney, David Rivkin, said in a statement that Saab only met once with federal agents, to whom he explained the nature of his business. And he added that the Venezuelan government was aware of that meeting.
CNN also contacted the Venezuelan government for reaction. So far there has been no response.
Saab was arrested in Cape Verde in June 2020 when the plane he was traveling to Iran made a stopover to refuel. After a trial, he was extradited to the US in October 2021 and faces a single charge of conspiracy to launder money.
According to the US, Saab would have allegedly taken advantage of the exchange control in force in Venezuela at the time to obtain subsidized dollars through false and fraudulent import documents for articles and construction materials that were never imported into Venezuela, by bribing Venezuelan officials with money deposited. in US bank accounts
Saab has always declared himself innocent of all the accusations. In addition, he has maintained that he is politically persecuted by the United States.
The prosecutors asked the federal judge in Miami Robert Scola to keep this information disclosed this Wednesday in reserve; however, the judge decided to declassify it. Attorney Rivkin believes that this disclosure is an attempt to harm the interests of Venezuela.
On April 4, the lawyers must appeal the sentence issued by a Federal Court in Atlanta, which rejected the argument that Saab is a foreign diplomat who cannot be tried. The Venezuelan government maintains that Saab had diplomatic status when he was detained in Cape Verde.
That process, according to the prosecutor, might take more than a year if the defense decides to exhaust all legal instances. So the date of the start of the trial is only tentative.
