The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) recently announced the arrest of Colombian national Alvaro Pulido Vargas, also known as “German Enrique Rubio Salas,” for his alleged involvement in two money laundering and bribery schemes. According to federal prosecutors, Pulido Vargas, who was arrested on October 10, 2026, participated in schemes that allegedly laundered more than $2 billion in bribe funds tied to officials in Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan government. The DOJ also stated that Pulido Vargas has a long history of drug trafficking that predates the alleged laundering and bribery crimes, including a 1997 conviction in Italy under the name German Enrique Rubio Salas. Pulido Vargas is currently scheduled to be arraigned in both cases on November 4, 2026.
Pulido Vargas was indicted in July 2019 in a case involving Maduro ally Alex Nain Saab Moran. According to federal prosecutors, the two men laundered approximately $350 million through a bribery scheme involving Venezuela’s state-controlled currency exchange system. Prosecutors claim that between roughly November 2011 and September 2015, the two men won a government contract to build low-income housing. They then allegedly took advantage of the official exchange rate by filing false import paperwork for goods that never arrived in Venezuela and bribing officials to approve those documents. The indictment further alleges that the pair hid the proceeds by wiring money to accounts in South Florida and moving the funds out of Venezuela, through the United States, into offshore accounts they controlled. Pulido Vargas is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and seven counts of money laundering for his role in this scheme. In July 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also designated a total of 10 individuals and 13 entities, some of whom were connected to this scheme, including Pulido Vargas and Saab Moran.
Pulido Vargas was also separately indicted in October 2021, along with four co-defendants, for laundering funds from a bribery scheme related to about $1.6 billion worth of Venezuelan government contracts for food and medicine. Prosecutors allege that from around July 2015 through at least 2020, the group paid bribes to Venezuelan officials to win contracts through the Comité Local de Abastecimiento y Producción (“CLAP”), a Venezuelan state-run program meant to supply food and medicine to the Venezuelan public. According to the indictment, the defendants inflated contract prices to pay for the bribes and enrich themselves. They then allegedly moved the funds through bank accounts in Antigua, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and other locations, sending about $180 million into or through the United States, including to accounts in South Florida. Pulido Vargas is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and four counts of money laundering for his role in this scheme.
More recently, Saab Moran, who previously served as the Minister of Industry in Venezuela, pleaded guilty on September 15, 2026, to conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. In December 2023, President Biden granted Saab a pardon while he was awaiting trial as part of a deal for the release of Venezuelans linked to Maduro’s political opposition as well as 10 detained Americans. However, federal prosecutors obtained a separate indictment in January 2026 built upon new facts but still related to the CLAP scheme, ultimately resulting in Saab’s guilty plea.
DOJ Press Release | 2021 Indictment | Court Minutes – 2021 Indictment | 2019 Indictment | Court Minutes – 2019 Indictment