US Arrests Man Accused in Multibillion-Dollar Venezuelan Money-Laundering Scheme

US authorities had offered a $10 million (£7.5 million) reward for information leading to the arrest of Alvaro Polido.

By Vanessa Buschlotter Online Latin America Editor

A Colombian man wanted on charges of laundering money illegally used from a Venezuelan government welfare program has been arrested in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Alvaro Pulido, 62, was arrested during a Homeland Security Task Force operation on Sunday, but did not provide further details on how he ended up in U.S. custody.

Pulido has been in a Venezuelan prison since March 2023, accused of embezzling profits from the state oil company PDVSA.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the State Department had offered a $10m (£7.5m) reward for information leading to his arrest.

He is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Pulido's arrest comes just two months after Alex Saab, another Colombian businessman with close ties to the Venezuelan government, pleaded guilty in a US court to money laundering charges.

The US Attorney's Office said Pulido was charged in two separate federal indictments "involving the laundering of more than $2 billion (£1.5 billion) in connection with schemes to bribe the Venezuelan government."

U.S. prosecutors say Pulido, along with four other defendants, bribed Venezuelan government officials to secure contracts to provide food and medicine to impoverished Venezuelans.

They accuse Pulido of overspending the Venezuelan government and laundering money through bank accounts abroad, including in the United States.

They also allege that Pulido worked with Alex Saab to launder $350 million from a separate bribery scheme that involved a Venezuelan currency exchange system using bank accounts in Florida.

Until recently, Saab was a powerful figure in the Venezuelan government, with close ties to then-Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who named him industry minister in 2024.

However, Saab's fortunes quickly changed after Maduro was captured by U.S. forces in a raid on Caracas in January and flown to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges.

Less than two weeks after Maduro's arrest, Venezuela's new U.S.-backed interim government fired Saab as minister and extradited him to the United States in May.

Last month, Saab pleaded guilty to money laundering charges.