Alex Saab

Alex Nain Saab Morán (Arabic: أليكس صعب; born 21 December 1971) is a Colombian businessman. Saab was the subject of journalistic investigations for conducting businesses estimated at US$135 million with the Venezuelan government, while other Colombian businessmen had stopped exporting to Venezuela due to uncertainty regarding payments and tight exchange controls. Saab's name has appeared in multiple ICIJ leaks including the Panama Papers, Pandora Papers and the FinCEN Files.

Saab was enriched by the materials supplier business of the Housing Mission in Venezuela. Armando.Info, a Venezuelan investigative journalist outlet, reported that Saab received US$159 million from the Venezuelan government to import housing materials between 2012 and 2013, but only delivered products worth US$3 million. He later sold food to Venezuela for more than US$200 million in a contract signed by President Nicolás Maduro. The food was later resold in Venezuela for 112% more than its original price.

Saab has been investigated by Colombian authorities for allegedly laundering US$25,000 million between 2004 and 2011. On 8 May 2019, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia indicted Saab with charges of money laundering, concert to commit crimes, illicit enrichment, fictitious exports and imports, and aggravated fraud for events related to his Shatex company. During the course of these investigations, his accounting auditors were arrested and charged by the prosecutor's office.

During a fuel stop at Cape Verde, Alex Saab was arrested while on his way from Venezuela to Iran on a business jet on 12 June 2020. Saab was arrested in accordance to an Interpol red notice in relation to his indictment in United States, accused of money laundering. Saab's extradition to the United States was approved by the Barlovento Appeals Tribunal, Cape Verde's Supreme Court of Justice and its Constitutional Court.

The Venezuelan government denied or ignored any relationship with Saab for years, but after his arrest in Cape Verde it started deploying a support campaign in favour of Saab and to prevent his extradition, using government social media accounts and filling Caracas with billboards, murals and graffitis asking for his release, organizing demonstrations in his support, and starting a YouTube series about him.

He was extradited to the United States on 16 October 2021 and charged with eight counts of money laundering, accused of moving $350 million out of Venezuela into accounts controlled in the United States and other countries, as well as falsifying documents to obtain contracts for the construction of affordable housing, facing up to twenty years in prison. Maduro's government suspended negotiation talks with the political opposition as a response. According to court documents released in 2022, Saab became a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant in 2018, during which time he shared information about the bribes that he offered to Venezuelan officials and contracts with the government.

In December 2023 Saab was released from jail to be sent back to Venezuela in exchange for ten American prisoners being held in Venezuela in a prisoner exchange.