A fugitive accused of profiting from Venezuelan government aid programs is now in U.S. custody, where he faces charges in a sweeping corruption investigation linked to Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
Alvaro Pulido Vargas, 62, was arrested in an operation led by a Homeland Security Task Force. He is scheduled to appear in federal court in South Florida on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the Justice Department said.
The Colombian national is charged in two separate cases that allege he moved proceeds from Venezuelan bribery schemes through U.S. banks to conceal the money.
“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,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said.
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the arrest Sunday on X, alleging that Pulido Vargas exploited government programs designed to deliver essential supplies and housing to Venezuelans.
“His alleged actions show a blatant disregard to the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment and exploiting the American financial system to do it,” Blanche wrote.
Pulido Vargas, who also used the name German Enrique Rubio Salas, was indicted in 2019 and again in 2021. The Justice Department said he was previously convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 1997 under that alias.
“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,” DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said.
The more recent indictment focuses on roughly $1.6 billion in Venezuelan government contracts for supplying food and medicine through CLAP, a state-run distribution program.
According to prosecutors, Pulido Vargas and his associates paid bribes to secure the contracts, then overstated prices to conceal the kickbacks and increase their profits. The alleged conduct took place from about July 2015 through at least 2020.
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His son, Emmanuel Enrique Rubio Gonzalez, and José Gregorio Vielma-Mora, a former Venezuelan state governor, were among four other defendants charged in the case.
Prosecutors allege that Vielma-Mora and an intermediary received approximately $17.3 million in bribes and other illicit payments in exchange for directing food contracts and additional business opportunities to the group.
Investigators say the funds were routed through a network of companies and bank accounts in Antigua, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and other locations. The 2021 indictment alleges that fabricated contracts and related documents were used to make the payments look legitimate.
About $180 million allegedly passed through or into the United States, including accounts in South Florida, prosecutors said.
“The allegations describe a profound betrayal of the Venezuelan people; corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said.
The earlier case involves an alleged effort to profit from a Venezuelan government housing initiative intended to build homes for low-income residents.
In 2019, prosecutors charged Pulido Vargas and Alex Nain Saab Moran, a close Maduro ally, accusing them of using a housing contract to manipulate Venezuela’s government-controlled currency exchange system.
The indictment alleges that the pair filed false documents claiming they had imported goods and construction materials that never arrived in Venezuela. They also allegedly bribed officials to approve the paperwork.
Prosecutors say they moved approximately $350 million out of Venezuela through U.S. banks and into overseas accounts they controlled. The alleged scheme ran from approximately November 2011 through at least September 2015.
Pulido Vargas faces five money laundering-related charges in the 2021 case, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. He faces eight additional money laundering-related charges in the 2019 case.
The DEA, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating the cases through the Homeland Security Task Force initiative.
Blanche pointed to the arrest as a warning to others facing U.S. prosecution.