A fugitive accused of profiting from programs meant to assist Venezuelans is now in US custody, facing accusations in a massive corruption case linked to Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
The Justice Department reported that Alvaro Pulido Vargas, 62, was arrested during a Homeland Security Task Force investigation and will appear in federal court in South Florida on Tuesday, October 13.
The Colombian national is facing two federal charges for allegedly assisting in the funneling of money from Venezuelan government bribery schemes through US institutions in order to conceal unlawful earnings.
“Pulido is charged in two separate, significant money laundering schemes, both using the U.S. financial system to hide the profits from his bribery and greed off the backs of the Venezuelan people,” A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney General,
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the arrest Sunday on X, accusing Pulido Vargas of abusing programs designed to provide necessary goods and housing.
“His alleged actions show a blatant disregard to the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment and exploiting the American financial system to do it,” Blanche said.
Pulido Vargas, aka German Enrique Rubio Salas, was charged in 2019 and again in 2021. The Justice Department stated that he had previously been convicted of cocaine trafficking in Italy in 1997 under that alias.
“For years, the DEA and our HSTF colleagues hunted Pulido Vargas across borders. “Today, that pursuit has led him to the Southern District of Florida,” DEA Administrator Terrance Cole stated.
The latest case revolves around nearly $1.6 billion in Venezuelan government contracts to deliver food and medicine through CLAP, a government-run distribution network.
Prosecutors allege that Pulido Vargas and his accomplices paid bribes to win the contracts, then inflated prices to cover the payoffs and enrich themselves. The claimed plan lasted from about July 2015 to at least 2020.
His son, Emmanuel Enrique Rubio Gonzalez, and former Venezuelan state governor Jose Gregorio Vielma-Mora were among the four people charged in the case.
Prosecutors claim Vielma-Mora and an intermediary received around $17.3 million in bribes and illegal payments for directing government food contracts and other business benefits to the group.
The money allegedly passed through a network of corporations and bank accounts in Antigua, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and other locations. The indictment from 2021 describes false contracts and other papers that were allegedly utilized to make the payments appear legal.
Prosecutors said around $180 million flowed through or into the United States, including accounts in South Florida.
“The allegations describe a profound betrayal of the Venezuelan people; corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment,” stated U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones.
The prior lawsuit centered on an alleged plot to profit from a government program designed to build homes for low-income Venezuelans.
In 2019, prosecutors indicted Pulido Vargas and Maduro loyalist Alex Nain Saab Moran with allegedly using Venezuela’s government-controlled currency exchange system through a housing contract.
The individuals allegedly submitted fake papers claiming to have imported commodities and building supplies that never entered Venezuela, and then bribed officials to approve them.
Prosecutors said they transferred around $350 million out of Venezuela via US institutions and into international accounts they controlled. The claimed plan lasted from about November 2011 to at least September 2015.
Pulido Vargas faces five money laundering accusations in the 2021 case, each with a possible penalty of 20 years in federal prison. In the 2019 case, he is charged with eight additional counts of money laundering.
The DEA, FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations are probing the instances as part of the Homeland Security Task Force effort.
Blanche cited the arrest as a warning to others facing US persecution.
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