Concern in Venezuela and Turkey over the arrest of Alex Saab

Colombian citizen of Lebanese descent Álex Naín Saab Morán, age 48, was arrested in the African nation of Cape Verde while trying to leave the island for the Islamic Republic of Iran to negotiate deals after being accused of money laundering. As the front man for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, he is being sought by the United States, which is requesting Saab's extradition causing concern to several nations, including Venezuela and Iran.  

Saab intended to leave the Cape Verdean island to go to persian territory to negotiate agreements between the two countries, including the exchange of Venezuelan gold for Iranian gasoline, as noted by Al-Arabiya media. 

In Venezuela and Turkey there is concern that Saab could end up in a U.S. court as he is a relevant figure because of his many secrets and suspected money laundering operations linked to the Chavista regime and the economic relationship between Caracas and Ankara through fake companies based in Istanbul, according to this website.  

The Colombian businessman's name appeared in the media when former Venezuelan prosecutor Luisa Ortega accused him in 2017 of being one of Maduro's front men. Saab was linked to several companies, including Group Grand Limited (GGL), accused of supplying Maduro's regime with overpriced food and provisions for the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) established by the Chavista government. 

In July 2019, US government sources indicated that, thanks to the CLAPs, which are provided to the poorest, the Colombian businessman and three of Maduro's stepchildren, apparently made "hundreds of millions of dollars". In addition, charges were also brought last July against Saab and its right-hand man, Álvaro Enrique Pulido, reportedly for laundering up to $350 million they allegedly defrauded through the exchange control system in Venezuela. 

According to the United States, between November 2011 and September 2015, Saab and Pulido participated in a plot to launder their illicit profits and transfer them from the Latin American country to U.S. bank accounts, thus giving Washington jurisdiction over the case. 

For that reason, Saab and Pulido have a case open for conspiracy to launder money since 2019 in the federal courts of the Southern District of Florida, and both have been declared fugitives from justice.  

The announcement of their arrest came after last June 9 the Colombian Attorney General's Office imposed precautionary measures for the purpose of extinguishing ownership (expropriation) of eight properties that would form "part of the illicit patrimony that businessman Alex Naín Saab Morán constituted through irregular financial operations". "This person is pointed out by international agencies as a front man for Nicolás Maduro and for leading a corruption scheme that, in Venezuela, seized millionaire resources destined to the purchase of foodstuffs that reached higher prices", said the Colombian Prosecutor's Office last week after deciding to expropriate the businessman's property. According to the same fiscal institution, these assets have a value of 35 billion pesos (about 9.7 million dollars) and are in Barranquilla. 

Meanwhile, Colombian businessman Álex Saab will file an appeal against his preventive detention in Cape Verde, as confirmed to the Efe agency by his lawyer, José Manuel Pinto Monteiro. The appeal will be filed before the Court of Appeals of the island of San Vicente, Pinto said of his client, for whom the Cape Verdean Justice yesterday ordered preventive detention after being arrested last Friday in this West African island country.

Saab was arrested at the Amilcar Cabral de Sal International Airport (the largest in Cape Verde) in response to a request by the United States through an Interpol red alert for the aforementioned money-laundering offences. 

The businessman was travelling in a private plane that requested permission to land on the island of Sal in order to refuel. «This is relevant, because it is someone with diplomatic status, who was on a mission to serve and whose plane stopped in Cape Verde just to refuel. This is the key piece in the whole process. It was not enough to invoke Interpol's red alert for arrest. There are other interests at stake that are being analyzed by the defense“, argued the lawyer. 

The lawyer thus answered the question of whether the fact that the current government Cape Verdean does not have good relations with the Nicolás Maduro regime has influenced his decision. "I don't know if that was what weighed. But it certainly weighed on the fact of prioritizing the United States in everything, “said the lawyer, who called the authorization granted by the Cape Verdean government to the Attorney General's Office to arrest Saab a” surprising decision.

The next step, he said, is ”quietly wait" for Washington's extradition request. and “review the documentation on which the United States relies on extradition, see what crimes are attributed to Mr. Álex Saab, and then respond.”

Pinto believes that there is still “a long way to go considering the possible legal remedies “, first before the Court of Appeals, then before the Supreme Court of Justice and, finally, before the Constitutional Court.

Therefore, the lawyer predicted a period of” not less than five or six months” for the outcome of the process, adding that he is “permanently in contact” with a commission of lawyers who help the Colombian in the United States, Russia and Turkey.

According to Cape Verde's legislation, the United States has 18 days (starting this past Sunday) to present an extradition request, according to the Attorney General of the Republic, Jose Landim. “Cape Verde,” added Landim, “does not have a bilateral extradition agreement with the United States, but it is linked to the United Nations conventions that oblige it to comply with the request, if it is made.”

The prosecutor pointed out that, regarding an eventual extradition, “nothing is guaranteed” as the request may be denied by the Cape Verde courts, which have already done so in the past in response to requests from other countries, especially Europe.

The arrest of the Colombian businessman is causing concern at the highest levels in Venezuela, because of this alleged link with financial operations linked to the Maduro administration, and also in Turkey. Saab has been key to the economic relationship between Caracas and Ankara in recent years. Thus, through the mechanism called 'gold for food' it mobilized hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Saab obviously handles critical information about Venezuelan leaders and, in view of that, Nicolas Maduro's regime increases the pressure to avoid extradition to the United States. The Chavista Executive issued a statement last Saturday to demand Saab's release, indicating that the Colombian businessman has Venezuelan nationality and that he was traveling as an "agent" of his government. This argument appeals to a supposed function covered by "diplomatic immunity".

Turkey could also be trying to prevent him from being sent to the U.S. courts since Saab, among the countless laundering operations it has carried out for the Venezuelan regime, he has also allegedly played a key role in building Venezuela’s economic relationship with Turkey through his shell companies located in Istanbul, according to Ahval News. 

The publication noted that the two regimes "have established a so-called gold-for-food mechanism." Since 2018, Venezuelan gold has been shipped to Turkey for refinement, with some $900 million’s worth of gold shipped that year. 

In return, Turkey became a major supplier of consumer staples such as pasta, sunflower oil, wheat flour, red lentils, and powdered milk for Venezuela, which is suffering from a serious shortage of supplies and a deep economic crisis.

Ahval News recalled that Mulberry Proje Yatirim, established in Istanbul in 2017 by Saab’s partners, has allegedly become the intermediary in food imports by purchasing goods from Turkey on behalf of Venezuelan clients and selling them in Venezuela.

As part of the pressure exerted by the US on Nicolas Maduro's regime, including the blocking of Venezuelan assets on US territory (notably those linked to oil), in July 2019, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Mulberry for its involvement in Saab’s sophisticated network that allegedly laundered millions of dollars in profits from overvalued contracts linked to Venezuela’s food subsidy program.

The U.S. government of Donald Trump claims that the main beneficiaries are senior officials of the Venezuelan regime and members of the military. However, the focus is also on some important figures in Turkey. Such as the case of Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader arrested and charged in the United States in 2016 for involvement in a huge money-laundering scheme that violated U.S. sanctions on Iran that had to do with the US withdrawal from the nuclear pact signed with the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2015 and which was reportedly in breach of several terms by the ayatollahs' regime.  

Zarrab, who initially pleaded not guilty, decided to cooperate with American justice and became a witness for the United States Government. He admitted his participation in the multi-million-dollar gold-for-oil scheme, and his testimony brought to light the names of several former Turkish ministers. 

However, the fact that the Ottoman media are increasingly under the control of the Erdogan regime means that the facts of corruption involving public officials are virtually unknown.

Another fact provided by Ahval News to reflect the close link between Caracas and Ankara is that the Venezuelan government recently hired Amsterdam and Partners LLP, a U.S. law firm that also represents Turkey, in a renewed effort to battle harsh economic sanctions imposed by Washington, the Associated Press reported in February.

Since 2015, Amsterdam has assisted Turkey in seeking the extradition of a U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, who Turkey accuses of masterminding a failed military coup on July 15, 2016.

Last May it was also revealed that Alex Saab had been appointed by Maduro to push for a gold-for-fuel-additives deal with Iran. The Colombian businessman helped negotiate Iran's deal with Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami, Bloomberg reported at the time.