By Luis De Jesus
The US Justice definitively dismissed all charges against the Colombian businessman Alex Saab, an ally of the Nicolás Maduro regime, who was released in December 2023.
Federal magistrate Robert Scola granted the dismissal of all charges against Saab after the presidential pardon signed in his favor by the president of the United States, Joe Biden, as recorded in a motion filed in court, notes Efe.
Saab, accused of money laundering and other crimes, was released in a prisoner exchange with Venezuela, which in turn freed ten Americans and nearly twenty Venezuelans considered political prisoners.
The businessman was arrested on June 12, 2020 in Cape Verde following a US request through Interpol for alleged money laundering. The socialist regime affirmed that Alex Saab, a Colombian businessman, was supposedly appointed special envoy for official missions in Iran in 2018.
He was later extradited to the United States, accused of money laundering conspiracy. He was also wanted by Colombian authorities for conspiracy to commit a crime, illicit enrichment, fictitious exports and imports, and aggravated fraud.
On the same day of his release and after arriving in Caracas, Alex Saab was received with hugs at the Miraflores presidential palace by Maduro, who described him as “a brave and patriotic man.”
A month later, Maduro appointed Saab president of the country’s International Center for Productive Investment, created in 2020 to attract capital and for the registration, study and monitoring of the sanctions imposed on the Venezuelan economy.
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