MIAMI (AP) — Less than three years after President Joe Biden pardoned a close ally of Nicolás Maduro, the Justice Department is targeting the businessman again, The Associated Press has learned, an investigation that could support the U.S.-based prosecution of the Venezuelan leader.
Federal prosecutors have been investigating Alex Saab’s role in an alleged bribery conspiracy involving Venezuelan government food import contracts for months, according to two former law enforcement officials who spoke to the AP about the ongoing investigation on condition of anonymity.
Saab, 54, amassed a fortune through government contracts in Venezuela. But the Colombian-born businessman, long described by US officials as Maduro’s “bag man”, has fallen out of favor with the country’s new leadership that took power following the US ouster of the Venezuelan president last month.
The Justice Department’s renewed interest in Saab comes against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s efforts to stabilize relations with the oil-rich nation. The investigation stems from a 2021 case the Justice Department brought against Saab’s longtime partner Alvaro Pulido, former law enforcement officials said. That prosecution, in Miami, centers around the so-called CLAP program set up by Maduro to provide staples — rice, cornmeal, cooking oil — to poor Venezuelans struggling to feed themselves in a time of rampant hyperinflation and a collapsing currency.
The renewed control marks a reversal of fortune for Saab, which escaped an earlier US prosecution in an unrelated bribery scheme after Biden pardoned it as part of a prisoner swap for several Americans jailed in Venezuela.
His whereabouts remained unknown Tuesday, days after conflicting reports suggested he had been detained or brought in for questioning — at least temporarily — by Venezuelan officials at the request of the Trump administration.
Neither US officials nor the government of Acting President Delcy Rodriguez have commented. Luigi Giuliano, an Italian lawyer, said he met with Saab last week in the Venezuelan capital and denied he had been detained, but declined to comment further. Saab’s lawyer, Neil Schuster, did not comment either.
Since Maduro took over on January 3, Rodríguez has demoted Saab, firing him from her cabinet and stripping him of his role as the main conduit for foreign companies looking to invest in Venezuela.
Biden pardons Saab over law enforcement objections
Over the objections of law enforcement, Biden agreed in 2023 to release Saab in exchange for the release of several imprisoned Americans and Venezuela’s return of a fugitive foreign defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard.” The deal came as part of an effort by the Biden White House to lift sanctions and get Maduro to hold free and fair presidential elections.
New charges against people previously granted clemency are rare and can only be secured for crimes committed outside the defined scope of the pardon, said Frank Bowman, a professor emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Law who is writing a book on pardons.
Saab’s pardon was strictly tailored to a 2019 indictment — the case number is cited in the pardon itself — related to a contract he and Pulido allegedly won through bribes to build low-income housing units in Venezuela that were never built.
Saab’s pardon came with a number of conditions, Bowman noted, including that he stay out of the United States and commit no further crimes against it. “This is a revocable pardon,” he said.
The connections inside are fueling Saab’s rise
In Venezuela’s patronage system, where loyalty and insider connections are paramount, few insiders have prospered like Saab. He first entered the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s radar more than a decade ago after collecting a large number of contracts with Maduro’s socialist administration.
In 2016, a pro-Maduro governor allegedly hired a company controlled by Pulido to import 10 million boxes of food from Mexico at $34 per box. He allegedly did this knowing that the actual cost of purchasing and shipping the boxes to Venezuela was much less, and asked for kickbacks. One of those who allegedly signed the agreement and helped create a network of companies to hide the bribe payments was Saab, which is identified in the indictment as “Co-Conspirator 1.”
Saab was arrested in 2020 after his private jet made a refueling stop in Cape Verde en route to Iran in what the Venezuelan government described as a humanitarian mission to circumvent US sanctions.
Maduro celebrated Saab’s return in 2023 as a “triumph for the truth” over what he called a US-led campaign of lies, threats and torture against someone he considered a Venezuelan diplomat. But several Republicans criticized the deal, including Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who wrote a letter to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland saying history “should remember (Saab) as a predator of vulnerable people.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the federal investigation into Saab. The Justice Department and the FBI declined to comment.
Witness against Maduro?
If returned to US custody, Saab could become a valuable witness against Maduro, former law enforcement officials said. Saab met secretly with the DEA before his first arrest, and in a closed-door hearing in 2022, his lawyers revealed that the businessman had for years helped the DEA unravel corruption in Maduro’s inner circle. As part of this cooperation, he lost more than 12 million dollars in illegal income from dirty business.
David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami, said Saab could be a valuable character witness against Maduro, even though he himself has not been charged with drug trafficking like the former Venezuelan leader.
“The indictment against Maduro contained a lot of salacious allegations, but there was little corroboration,” Weinstein said. “Saab, if reports of his own criminal activity and closeness to Maduro are true, can describe for jurors a series of criminal activities that allegedly took place under Maduro’s government.”
Saab also has ties to Rodríguez, the Trump administration’s preferred partner in succeeding Maduro. The AP reported last month that the DEA was looking into Rodríguez’s involvement in government contracts awarded to Saab. The US government has never publicly charged Rodríguez with any criminal wrongdoing.
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This story is part of an investigation that includes the FRONTLINE documentary “Crisis in Venezuela,” premiering February 10, 2026, on PBS. Watch the documentary at pbs.org/frontline, on the PBS app, on PBS stations and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.
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Mustian reported from New York. Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker contributed reporting from Washington.