Homeland Security Task Force Arrests Alvaro Pulido Vargas to Face Charges in Multibillion-Dollar Venezuelan Money Laundering and Bribery Schemes

A Colombian national charged in two separate federal indictments involving the alleged laundering of more than $2 billion in connection with Venezuelan government bribery schemes will make his initial appearance on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 13, in the Southern District of Florida to face federal prosecution. According to court documents, Alvaro Pulido Vargas, also known as “German Enrique Rubio Salas,” 62, of Colombia, was indicted in 2019 and again in 2021 for his alleged involvement in separate schemes to launder proceeds of bribery and fraud involving Venezuelan government officials of the Nicolás Maduro regime. Prior to these alleged offenses, Pulido Vargas had a prolific history of drug trafficking, including a 1997 conviction in Italy under the alias of German Enrique Rubio Salas. The 2021 Indictment In October 2021, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Pulido Vargas and four co-defendants with laundering proceeds from an alleged bribery scheme involving approximately $1.6 billion in Venezuelan government contracts to provide food and medicine. According to the Indictment, from approximately July 2015 through at least 2020, Pulido Vargas and his co-conspirators secured lucrative government contracts through the Comité Local de Abastecimiento y Producción (CLAP)—a Venezuelan government-controlled program intended to provide food and medicine to the Venezuelan people—by paying bribes to Venezuelan officials. The defendants allegedly inflated the costs of the contracts to fund the bribes and enrich themselves. They also allegedly laundered proceeds through bank accounts in Antigua, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and elsewhere. As a result of the scheme, Pulido Vargas and his co-conspirators allegedly received approximately $1.6 billion from the Venezuelan government and transferred approximately $180 million through or to the United States, including bank accounts in the Southern District of Florida. Pulido Vargas is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and four counts of money laundering, each carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The 2019 Indictment In a separate case, Pulido Vargas and Alex Nain Saab Moran — a Maduro regime ally — were indicted in July 2019 for allegedly laundering approximately $350 million in connection with a bribery scheme involving Venezuela’s government-controlled currency exchange system. According to the Indictment, from approximately November 2011 and through at least September 2015, Pulido Vargas and Saab Moran conspired with others to launder proceeds of an illegal bribery scheme through bank accounts in the United States. Pulido Vargas and Saab Moran allegedly obtained a contract with the Venezuelan government to construct low-income housing units. They subsequently exploited Venezuela’s government-controlled exchange rate by submitting false and fraudulent import documents for goods and materials that were never imported into Venezuela and bribing Venezuelan government officials to approve those documents. To conceal the illicit proceeds, Pulido Vargas and Saab Moran allegedly wired money related to the scheme to bank accounts in the Southern District of Florida and transferred approximately $350 million out of Venezuela through the United States and into overseas accounts they owned or controlled. Pulido Vargas is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and seven counts of money laundering in connection with this scheme.