US Arrests Fugitive in $2B Venezuela Bribery Case

Alvaro Pulido Vargas, 62, was arrested in a Homeland Security Task Force operation and faces an initial appearance Oct. 13 in federal court in South Florida on 2019 and 2021 indictments. Prosecutors allege a $1.6 billion scheme around Venezuelan CLAP food and medicine contracts from 2015 to 2020, with about $180 million moved through U.S. accounts, and a separate $350 million housing and currency-exchange laundering case with Alex Nain Saab Moran from 2011 to 2015. They say Jose Gregorio Vielma-Mora and a middleman took about $17.3 million in bribes; Pulido's son Emmanuel Enrique Rubio Gonzalez is among four other defendants. He used the alias German Enrique Rubio Salas and has a 1997 Italian drug-trafficking conviction under it. He faces five money-laundering charges in 2021, each up to 20 years, and eight more in 2019. CONTESTED: No material disputes on the dollar figures or arrest; Fox News totals 13 money-laundering charges while other accounts list five in 2021 and eight in 2019. Todd Blanche announced the arrest Sunday on X. A. Tysen Duva said the two schemes used the U.S. financial system to hide bribery profits. Terrance Cole said the multi-year DEA and HSTF pursuit brought him to the Southern District of Florida. Jason A. Reding Quiñones said the allegations describe corrupting programs meant for food, medicine and housing. Court is next; he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.