Presidential fixer ‘illegally’ extradited to the US
A fugitive businessman accused of acting as a money launderer for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime has been extradited to the US from Cape Verde, his legal team has said,
Lawyer Manuel Pinto Monteiro said: “we were informed that Alex Saab was put on a US Justice Department plane and sent to that country.”
Mr Pinto Monteiro insisted the extradition was illegal, claiming the legal process surrounding it in Cape Verde had not run its full course. Venezuela reacted angrily to the extradition, suspending talks with the US-backed opposition in Mexico City.
It had hoped to make Saab part of the government delegation to that dialogue on ending the country’s political and economic crisis.
Saab and his business partner Alvaro Pulido are charged in the US with running a network that exploited food aid destined for Venezuela, an oil rich nation mired in an acute economic crisis.
They are alleged to have moved some $350m out of Venezuela into accounts they controlled.
Saab, who also has a Venezuelan diplomatic passport, was indicted in July 2019 in Miami for money laundering, and was arrested during a plane stopover in Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa, in June 2020.