Alex Saab set to plead guilty in US Venezuela food contracts case

Alex Saab, a close ally of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, is expected to plead guilty in a US federal case over allegations that he bribed officials to secure lucrative food import contracts during a period of widespread hardship in Venezuela.

Saab, 54, is scheduled to appear before Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami on Tuesday for a change of plea hearing, court records show. The details of the plea were not immediately made public, and his lawyer, Neil Schuster, declined to comment.

The Colombian-born businessman was deported in May by Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez following pressure from the United States, which has been investigating him for more than a decade. He was charged with a single count of money laundering tied to an alleged conspiracy involving fake companies, falsified shipping records and money skimmed from government contracts to import food from Colombia and Mexico.

Saab was first charged in 2019 during the first Trump administration and was later arrested in Cape Verde during a refuelling stop while 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 imprisoned Americans in Venezuela.

That deal was part of what the report described as a failed effort by the Biden White House to persuade Maduro to hold a free presidential election. It was sharply criticised by Republicans and federal law enforcement officials, who then began investigating Saab over other alleged crimes not covered by the narrowly tailored pardon. In short, Saab is now due back in a Miami court as the long-running US case against him moves to a new stage.