Washington, Oct 12 (IANS) US authorities have arrested a Colombian businessman accused of involvement in money laundering and bribery schemes worth more than $2 billion linked to the government of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Justice Department announced on Sunday (local time).

Alvaro Pulido Vargas, 62, who had been wanted by American authorities for years, is now in federal custody in southern Florida and is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Tuesday, October 13.

Pulido faces two separate federal indictments filed in 2019 and 2021. Prosecutors allege that he and his associates exploited Venezuelan government programmes intended to provide food, medicine and affordable housing. He used American and international banking networks to conceal illicit proceeds.

“Alvaro Pulido Vargas is no longer a fugitive from justice,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

“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,” Duva said.

According to the Justice Department, the larger case involves approximately $1.6 billion in Venezuelan government contracts awarded between 2015 and 2020 under a state-controlled food and medicine distribution programme known as CLAP.

Federal prosecutors allege that Pulido and four co-defendants obtained lucrative contracts by bribing Venezuelan officials and inflating prices to generate illegal profits.

Investigators say the defendants received approximately $1.6 billion from the Venezuelan government and transferred about $180 million through or into the United States.

The alleged transactions involved bank accounts in Antigua, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and other jurisdictions.

Pulido faces one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and four substantive money-laundering counts in the 2021 case. Each carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

A separate indictment filed in July 2019 accuses Pulido and businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran, an ally of Maduro, of laundering approximately $350 million.

Prosecutors allege that the two businessmen secured contracts to construct low-income housing but subsequently submitted fraudulent import documents for materials that were never brought into Venezuela.

Venezuelan officials were allegedly bribed to approve the documents, allowing the defendants to exploit preferential currency exchange arrangements.

Investigators say approximately $350 million was transferred out of Venezuela through the American financial system into overseas accounts controlled by the defendants.

US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said the allegations involved the misuse of government programmes intended to help vulnerable Venezuelans.

“Those accused of exploiting the American financial system should understand that distance, borders, and time will not shield them from the reach of the American legal system,” he said.

Pulido, also known as German Enrique Rubio Salas, was previously convicted of drug trafficking in Italy in 1997, according to American prosecutors.

--IANS

lkj/rs