Close Maduro Associate Alex Saab Faces Money Laundering Charge After Deportation to U.S.

A decade ago, some suspicious-looking powdered milk being handed out by the Venezuelan government came to the attention of investigative journalist Roberto Deniz and his colleagues at Armando.info.

The resulting investigation would expose a vast international corruption scandal benefitting now-deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other officials — and allegedly orchestrated by one of his close associates, the businessman Alex Saab.

Now, Saab has joined Maduro in U.S. custody, charged with money laundering stemming from the “food fraud” scandal Deniz and his colleagues uncovered. That discovery was detailed in the 2024 documentary A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela, from FRONTLINE and Armando.info.

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The film traced how Deniz and his colleagues revealed that the government was purchasing low-quality products for the CLAP program, a signature Maduro domestic aid initiative meant to give essential food items to Venezuelans impacted by the nation’s economic crisis. Deniz and his colleagues also revealed that CLAP was enriching Saab, the biggest contractor for the program.

Days after being deported from Venezuela, Saab appeared in federal court in Miami on Monday, where he said “Yes, ma’am,” when asked if he understood the money laundering charge against him.

It was the latest development in a story FRONTLINE has been covering for years — one that reached the highest ranks of Maduro’s government, and that has evolved in new ways since the audacious U.S. military capture of Maduro in January.

“The twists and turns in this story keep on going,” Deniz told FRONTLINE Monday.

Saab, widely seen as Maduro’s “bag man,” could now be a key figure in the U.S. case against Maduro himself — and could potentially be asked to testify against the now-deposed Venezuelan president and his wife, according to The Associated Press.

“He now has to face trial, or negotiate a plea agreement,” Deniz said of the Colombian-born businessman. “And any such agreement would almost certainly require providing information about Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores in order to seek a more favorable outcome with the U.S. justice system.”

This is not Saab’s first time in U.S. custody. In A Dangerous Assignment, FRONTLINE and Armando.info chronicled how during the first Trump administration, federal authorities charged Saab with money laundering and he was extradited to the U.S. in 2021. During court proceedings, it was revealed that Saab had previously provided information to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Saab was held in custody until 2023, when the Biden administration released him to Venezuela in a controversial prisoner swap, part of what was seen as an effort to improve relations with Venezuela and engage Maduro on holding free and fair elections.

That did not come to pass, according to the U.S. government, the Venezuelan opposition, and international observers. A 2025 update of A Dangerous Assignment recounted what happened during the disputed election and its aftermath.

The documentary also showed the price the Armando.info journalists paid for their reporting on the CLAP scandal and Saab.

Saab sued Deniz for criminal defamation, denying Armando.info’s reporting. In the face of threats, harassment and possible jail time, Deniz made the decision to leave Venezuela but continued reporting on Saab, Maduro and government corruption.

“I believe, to this day, that it was the right decision. That our best defense was to continue investigating the story,” Deniz said in the film.

Deniz’s reporting has been credited with uncovering how Saab used a network of companies to get around U.S. sanctions and to cheat the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA.

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Earlier this year, following Maduro’s ouster, the FRONTLINE and AP documentary Crisis in Venezuela examined the country’s uncertain future under acting leader Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s vice president when Saab served in Maduro’s cabinet as minister of industry. At the time the documentary aired, reports suggested Saab had been detained in Venezuela, sparking questions of his possible return to the U.S.

“That Delcy Rodríguez would end up extraditing Alex Saab to the United States strikes me as a very strong signal that she is willing to do many things to preserve power amid these negotiations with the United States,” Deniz said in the film.

Juan Ravell, who directed A Dangerous Assignment and Crisis in Venezuela, contributed reporting to this story.