Key facts
- Businessman Alvaro Pulido, wanted for bribery in the US, is in US custody.
- Pulido was indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and 2021.
- He allegedly paid bribes to Venezuelan officials for lucrative state contracts.
- The US DEA and State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest.
- Pulido was arrested in Venezuela in 2023 during a crackdown on corruption at PDVSA.
- US Attorney General Todd Blanche stated Pulido corrupted government programs for personal enrichment.
Alvaro Pulido, a businessman sought by the US for allegedly bribing top Venezuelan officials to secure state contracts, has been taken into US custody. Pulido, 62, was indicted in Miami in 2019 and again in 2021 as part of an investigation into his former business partner, Alex Saab. US officials announced his custody on Sunday.
US law enforcement agencies, including the DEA, FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations, led the operation. Attorney General Todd Blanche stated that Pulido's alleged actions demonstrated 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." He vowed that the Justice Department would continue to pursue such individuals.
Pulido was initially arrested in Venezuela in 2023 as part of a broad anti-corruption campaign within the state-run oil company PDVSA, a crackdown led by Delcy Rodríguez when she was Venezuela's vice-president. Prosecutors allege that Pulido and Saab operated a network of offshore shell companies to funnel bribes to allies of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. These bribes were allegedly in exchange for over $2 billion in contracts for food, medicine, and housing during a period of significant hardship in Venezuela.
Prior to these allegations, Pulido had a history of drug trafficking, including a 1997 conviction in Italy under an alias. Alex Saab, also Colombian, was deported to the US by Rodríguez in May and pleaded guilty in September to related bribery charges, agreeing to cooperate against Maduro and others and forfeit $195 million.