Note: A copy of the 2021 indictment can be found here and a copy of the 2019 indictment can be found here.

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.

“Alvaro Pulido Vargas is no longer a fugitive from justice,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “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. The message to anyone who brings their foreign bribery or money laundering schemes inside our borders: the U.S. Justice Department will pursue these schemes and prosecute those who perpetrate them.”

“Alvaro Pulido Vargas was charged years ago with participating in massive money laundering and bribery schemes tied to the Maduro regime,” said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of 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. Today, because of the persistence and coordination of our federal law enforcement and international partners, Pulido Vargas is in the Southern District of Florida to face those charges. Those accused of exploiting the American financial system should understand that distance, borders, and time will not shield them from the reach of the American legal system. We will continue working with our partners at home and abroad to bring defendants before an American court to answer for the charges against them.”

“Alvaro Pulido Vargas is accused of moving vast amounts of illicit money through a corrupt network that exploited the Venezuelan people and abused the U.S. financial system,” said said Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Terrance Cole. “For years, DEA and our HSTF partners have pursued Pulido Vargas across borders. Today, that pursuit has brought him to the Southern District of Florida. Those who finance criminal networks and believe money, influence, or international borders will shield them from U.S. justice are mistaken. DEA will relentlessly pursue the people and financial networks that fuel corruption, money laundering, and transnational crime threatening the United States and our partners.”

“Today’s arrest demonstrates that HSI and our Homeland Security Task Force partners will relentlessly pursue the illicit financial networks that enable corruption, transnational criminal activity, and the exploitation of vulnerable populations,” said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Acting Executive Associate Director John A. Condon. “Working with our domestic and international law enforcement partners, HSI will continue to follow the money, disrupt complex money-laundering schemes, and hold accountable those who allegedly use the U.S. financial system to conceal criminal proceeds.”

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.

The DEA Miami Field Division, FBI Miami, and HSI Miami are investigating these cases.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Monique Botero for the Southern District of Florida and Deputy Chief Joseph Palazzo of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section are prosecuting the cases, together with Assistant Chief Katherine Raut of the Criminal Division’s White Collar and Corporate Enforcement Section.

This arrest and prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Miami comprises of agents and officers from the DEA Miami Field Division, FBI Miami, and HSI Miami with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Miami.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.