A fugitive accused of profiting from Venezuelan government aid programs has been taken into U.S. custody and charged in a sweeping corruption investigation linked to Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
Alvaro Pulido Vargas, 62, was arrested by a Homeland Security Task Force and is expected to appear Tuesday, Oct. 13, in federal court in South Florida, the Justice Department said.
The Colombian national is facing two federal cases alleging that he helped move proceeds from Venezuelan bribery schemes through U.S. banks in an effort to conceal the alleged profits.
“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 programs created to deliver essential food, medicine 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 has also used the name German Enrique Rubio Salas, was indicted in 2019 and again in 2021. According to the Justice Department, 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 involves roughly $1.6 billion in Venezuelan government contracts for food and medicine distributed through CLAP, a state-run aid program.
Prosecutors allege that Pulido Vargas and his associates paid bribes to secure the contracts, then inflated prices to disguise those payments and generate personal profits. The alleged conduct began around July 2015 and continued through at least 2020.
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Among the other defendants are his son, Emmanuel Enrique Rubio Gonzalez, and former Venezuelan state governor Jose Gregorio Vielma-Mora.
According to prosecutors, Vielma-Mora and an intermediary received approximately $17.3 million in bribes and other illicit payments 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 transfers look legitimate.
Prosecutors say about $180 million passed through or into the United States, including accounts in South Florida.
“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 2019 case focuses on a separate alleged scheme involving a Venezuelan government program designed to build homes for low-income residents.
Prosecutors accused Pulido Vargas and Maduro ally Alex Nain Saab Moran 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 reached Venezuela, then 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.
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