In a 45-minute hearing held in a South Florida court, the once powerful Barranquilla native Alex Saab Moran went from being one of the most powerful and defiant pieces of Nicolás Maduro’s regime to a docile collaborator with the United States justice system.
His rapid metamorphosis occurred in less than three months, after DEA agents took him out of Venezuela last May through the Simón Bolívar airport in Maiquetía and transferred him to Opa-locka airport in Miami-Dade County to face a new money laundering process related to the business of the so-called CLAP boxes and the sale of oil from the state-owned PDVSA during Nicolás Maduro’s time.
The boxes and Shadi
After his presentation to the Court, last Tuesday, the only thing that emerged was that he signed a cooperation agreement that has made members of Maduro’s dictatorship and some Colombians nervous. Although the agreement appears sealed, EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit established several points that are part of the collaboration structure Saab offered.
After reviewing the evidence against him – which includes the traceability of international transactions and several testimonies – Saab accepted his responsibility in multimillion-dollar movements through a network of companies to sell CLAP boxes to Venezuela, which in some cases arrived at their destination with spoiled food and overcharges.
One of the points that weighed in accepting the charge is that, as EL TIEMPO revealed since 2017, his eldest son, Shadi Nain Saab, appears in that network as an account holder of juicy balances in Swiss banks.
He is also part of the board of the company Safire and director of Group Grand Limited, the cornerstone of the corrupt network. Despite this mea culpa, the agreement established that Saab must be available to testify in proceedings against regime figures, officials, and contractors.
An associate of the Barranquilla native told EL TIEMPO that in Venezuela they have ruled out that Saab will appear in the case against his boss, Nicolás Maduro. But he will have no problem testifying against Cilia Flores’ children.
‘Los Chamos’ and others
For the United States, it is clear that Saab bribed Maduro’s stepchildren, Walter, Yosser, and Yoswal Gavidia Flores, known as ‘los Chamos,’ and his cousin, Carlos Erica Malpica Flores, to gain access to land to build housing in Vargas state, several of which collapsed in the earthquake a few months ago.
That relationship was key for Saab to access dictatorship officials to move the CLAP boxes in exchange for bribes. In fact, it is believed they opened the doors for him to access Maduro and Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah.
On the list of people he would be asked to testify against is a diplomat close to Delcy Rodríguez, the interim president with whom Saab did not have good relations. Informants say the diplomat served as a liaison for awarding contracts, even related to Colombia.
The Colombian chapter
The version circulating is that he coordinated the visits and business of Gregorio Grau, brother of Manel, the Catalan friend of President Gustavo Petro, around two Productive Participation Contracts (CPP) in PDVSA to exploit oil in the Apure-Barinas basin.
The media outlet Armando.info published that Delcy Rodríguez, as Minister of Petroleum, assigned them to Colven Business Corp., a company initially linked to Danilo Romero (a friend of Petro) and later to a company in which Gregori Grau appears.
“On the Colombian side, the process was handled by a politician from the Sucre department, where Verónica Alcocer is from, who contacted a Venezuelan businessman named Jiménez,” explained a knowledgeable source.
And added that the United States is tracking a link from that case with the Venezuelan company Monómeros, which operates in Colombia. Regarding this, in an audio revealed by EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit, attributed to Grau, he is heard talking about the business opportunity he was opening in Venezuela in which he wanted to include Ecopetrol.
Gold bar escape
Another chapter linked to Colombia is related to gold movements. EL TIEMPO established that the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá and the Presidency, during Gustavo Petro’s time, received a report with sensitive data about multimillion-dollar drops in metal revenues due to illegal exports.
It states that after U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, before Maduro’s extraction, the regime issued decrees to lower the royalty percentage charged for gold imports. At that time, Saab was Venezuela’s Minister of Industry, and it is being verified if buildings near Maiquetía airport served as a collection center for bars that were flown out on charters to other countries.
The list of cases Saab could testify about could expand as additional agreements are reached.
Assets in Venezuela
One of these involves the fact that Saab would seek to pay the 195 million dollars he initially offered with assets in Venezuela and Europe.
“To gain points with the U.S. justice system, he would be offering to deliver money he obtained through the mega money laundering operation, along with properties in Venezuela that will be inventoried alongside others he still has in Europe,” a knowledgeable source told this newspaper.
In fact, the same source assured this newspaper that in exchange for accepting that guilt, his lawyers are also requesting that the time he served in Cape Verde and the Miami federal detention center be commuted.
However, those close to the process assured this newspaper that the time served in those prisons was part of the previous indictment from 2019, for which he was captured, extradited, and released after being covered by the controversial pardon offered by the Biden administration in December 2023, following negotiations with Nicolás Maduro’s government in Qatar.
Regarding the assets, they recall that since 2019 a luxurious apartment valued at nearly 5 million euros on Rome’s Via Condotti, linked to his second wife, Camilla Fabri, was seized. The property was acquired through a London company, as documented by authorities, which also mention 120 kilos of gold deposited in Fabri’s name in a Swiss bank.
It is believed there are other deposits, assets, and even gold bars in Turkey, Russia, and Iran, where Saab moved negotiating oil in exchange for other goods that did not reach Venezuela clandestinely due to U.S. embargoes. Saab’s testimony about these operations could affect Venezuelan military personnel involved in gold movements. While it is reviewed which assets could be seized – and which Italy claims – the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of Florida scheduled the sentencing hearing against Saab Morán for January 20, 2027, at 2 p.m.
(Check here all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit)
By then, it is expected that the so-called frontman of the dictator will have already provided information about his collaborators in Venezuela and contacts in Colombia, including the politician from Sucre.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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