Alex Saab

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Alex Saab
Alex Saab.jpg
Portrait of Alex Saab
Born
Alex Nain Saab Morán

(1971-12-21) December 21, 1971 (age 49)
Barranquilla, Colombia
NationalityColombian
CitizenshipVenezuelan[1]
Antiguan[2]
OccupationChavismo financial puppet
Known forClose relationship with the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro

Alex Nain Saab Morán (Arabic: أليكس صعب‎; born 21 December 1971)[3] is a Colombian-born businessman[4] of Lebanese descent[5] mentioned in the Panama Papers. Saab was the subject of journalistic investigations for conducting businesses estimated at US$135 million with the Venezuelan government,[6] while other Colombian businessmen had stopped exporting to Venezuela, due to uncertainty regarding payments and tight exchange controls.[7] Saab's name also appears in the FinCEN Files.[8]

Saab has been investigated by Colombian authorities for alleged money laundering between 2004 and 2011 worth US$25 000 million, and on 8 May 2019 the Colombian prosecutors office 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.[9] During the course of these investigations, his fiscal and accounting auditors were arrested and charged by the prosecutor's office.[10]

During a fuel stop at Cape Verde, Alex Saab was arrested while on his way from Iran to Venezuela 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.[11][12]

Saab's extradition to the United States has been approved Barlovento Appeals Tribunal, Cape Verde's Supreme Tribunal of Justice and its Constitutional Tribunal.[13][14][15]

Career[]

Alex Saab is the son of a Lebanese immigrant who settled in the city of Barranquilla and opened various businesses, finding success in Colombia's textile industry.[16]

Saab began his career in Barranquilla, selling business promotional keychains and subsequently work uniforms.[17] With time, Saab was mixing with a group of recognized Colombian businessmen and ended up exporting merchandise to Venezuela, using the CADIVI currency system, in which he had free capital mobility.[18] According to a Univisión source, during this time Saab accumulated million dollar debts after the suspension of foreign exchange payments by the Venezuelan government, which in turn alleged that some businessmen in the country had cheated millions from the Cadivi system. Saab was not accused of such fraud. Univisión has also mentioned that its journalist Gerardo Reyes was sued by the businessman following these publications.[19]

Saab was also enriched due to the materials supplier business of the Housing Mission in Venezuela. On 28 November 2011, the Colombian-Venezuelan agreement of the Global Construction Fund was signed, whose legal representative was Saab, which resulted in a contract of US$685 million for the construction of prefabricated homes in Venezuela,[17] while the organization was being investigated by the Ecuadorian government for alleged money laundering through false exports to Venezuela. The event was attended by presidents Juan Manuel Santos and Hugo Chávez, as was the then Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro. Saab's lawyer, Abelardo De La Espriella, assured La W Radio at the time that the headquarters of the Global Construction Fund in Ecuador had no connection with the Colombian businessman.[18]

Investigations[]

Saab has sold food to Venezuela for more than US$200 million in a negotiation signed by President Nicolás Maduro through a registered company in Hong Kong, China.[20][21] On 23 August 2017, the former Venezuelan attorney general, Luisa Ortega Díaz, said Alex Saab was the co-owner of the Mexican firm Group Grand Limited, along with Colombian businessmen Álvaro Pulido and Rofolfo Reyes, who Ortega claimed was "presumably President Nicolás Maduro". The company sold food to the Local Committees for Supply and Production (CLAP).[22] Saab would have met Álvaro Pulido in 2012, when he was dedicated to supplying the Saab company, but this activity would have stopped doing it in 2014.[23]

In September 2020 authorities in Liechtenstein started investigating Alex Saab on embezzlement charges related to CLAP public funds, sending a request for assistance to Switzerland.[24][25] On 14 September, United States authorities froze accounts in Liechtenstein belonging to Saab worth US$700 million.[26]

Censorship[]

On 11 September 2018, the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) of Venezuela banned the publication of information about Alex Saab to the journalists of the Armando.info web portal. The investigation articles point to Saab as a member of acts of corruption that would exist around the business and distribution of food for the CLAP.[27][28] In the document that is addressed to the journalist  [es] and signed by the general director of CONATEL, Vianey Miguel Rojas "forbids citizens Roberto Denis Machín, Joseph Poliszuk, Ewal Carlos Sharfenderg and Alfredo José Meza to publish and disseminate mentions that go against the honor and reputation of the citizen Alex Naím Saab" through digital media, specifically on the site Armando.info, "until the end of the current process in the case being pursued against said citizens".[29][30][31]

The ban was denounced by the Venezuelan National Press Workers' Union (SNTP). Since the publication of reports on Alex Saab, the Armando.info site has suffered massive cyber attacks, warning that the ban on mentioning Saab in successive investigation articles "increases the threat". Roberto Deniz rejected the sentence, recalling that after the publications the journalistic team had previously been threatened via Twitter, they were banned from leaving the country by the 11th Court in Caracas and now they were forbidden to continue Saab's investigation,[32] denouncing that according to "the logic of the judge" in charge of Alex Saab's lawsuit against the Armando.info journalists, "Alex Saab's "honor" and "reputation" were above the possibility of Venezuelans to learn about the business behind the CLAP".[29][30][31] The four journalists were sued by Saab in Caracas for "continuous aggravated defamation and slander".[33]

Foiled arrest operation[]

The Colombian Prosecution and the Directorate of Criminal Investigation and Interpol (DIJIN) issued arrest warrants on 24 September 2018 against seven people, including Alex Saab, charged with asset laundering worth US$25 000 million between 2004 and 2011, and planned to carry out an operation the following day. However, the operation was foiled after Eddie Andrés Pinto, a patrolman of the DIJIN who served as an interception analyst, alerted several members of the group about their arrests. As a response, Alex Saab escaped to Venezuela and his brothers, Luis Alberto and Amir, disconnected their cellphones and the authorities lost their track. After an investigation, a tip by an anonymous informant and an extortation complaint filed by a trusted person by Saab, the Colombian authorities identified Andrés Pinto as responsible; on 11 October he was arrested in Bogotá and indicted by the Prosecution with bribery and illegal violation of communications or correspondence of an official nature.[clarification needed] Pinto announced his intention to collaborate with the authorities. At the moment it was unknown if the indicted group and Saab contacted the DIJIN to leak information regarding the operation or if they were subject of extortion, and the Prosecution was evaluating if Pinto received benefits in exchange of the provided information. On 23 September 2018, one of Saab's lawyers filed a complaint with the prosecution for attempted extortion of from a public official "who is providing confidential information about investigative proceedings against the Saab family using WhatsApp and Telegram messages, in exchange for some economic or labor purpose.”[34] On 12 October, Andrés Pinto accepted the extortion charges that were indicted against him. According to the complaint in the audios and WhatsApp captures provided therein, Pinto requested COP 500 million in exchange for erasing all the information that existed on behalf of Saab, stating that "there was nothing that compromised Saab or his family", but that they "were going to be captured as a measure of pressure".[35]

Criminal charges[]

On 8 May 2019, the Colombian prosecutors office charged Saab with crimes of money laundering, a concert to commit crimes, illicit enrichment, exports and fictitious imports and an aggravated fraud for events related to his Shatex company. Since September 2018, he is considered a fugitive in Colombia for failing to attend any judicial proceeding even with a firm arrest warrant.[9]

On 25 July 2019, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida charged Saab and another Colombian businessman with money laundering related to a 2011-15 scheme to pay bribes to take advantage of Venezuela's government-set exchange rate.[36]

In March 2021, after three years of investigation, Swiss prosecutors found that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Saab for money laundering.[37]

Book[]

Colombian journalist Gerardo Reyes, Pulitzer Prize recipient and Univisión's investigation team director, published his book Alex Saab with the  [es], having performed 120 interviews. Reyes has described Saab "super minister", saying that he had more tasks than any other member of Maduro's cabinet, and has written that the Untied States calculates that Saab profits with the Venezuelan government are over a billion dollars.[38]

Sanctions[]

On 25 July 2019, the United States Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on 10 people and 13 companies (from Colombia, Hong Kong (China), Mexico, Panama, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S.) in a Venezuelan food subsidy called "CLAP", which includes Nicolas Maduro stepsons and Saab himself. According to a statement by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, "The corruption network that operates the CLAP program has allowed Maduro and his family members to steal from the Venezuelan people. They use food as a form of social control, to reward political supporters and punish opponents, all the while pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars through a number of fraudulent schemes."[39] The Maduro government rejected the sanctions, calling it sign of "desperation" by "the gringo empire." Maduro said "Imperialists, prepare for more defeats, because the CLAP in Venezuela will continue, no one takes the CLAP away from the people."[36] A communique from the Venezuelan foreign ministry "denounces the repeated practice of economic terrorism by the US government against the Venezuelan people, announcing measures whose criminal purpose is to deprive all Venezuelans of their right to food."[40]

In July 2021 the United Kingdom issued a series of sanctions that included Saab, which included the freezing of assets and travel bans. Álvaro Enrique Pulido, also pointed out as his associate, was also sanctioned, in both cases for ""exploiting two of Venezuela's public programs that were established to provide poor Venezuelans with affordable food and housing", saying that "They both benefited from improperly awarded contracts, in which promised goods were delivered at highly inflated prices. Their actions caused more suffering to Venezuelans who were already in poverty for their own private enrichment."[41][42]

Arrest[]

Detention[]

During a fuel stop at Cape Verde, Alex Saab was arrested while on his way from Iran to Venezuela on a business jet on 12 June 2020. Saab was arrested in accordance to an Interpol red notice in relation to his indictment in the United States, accused of money laundering. The Venezuelan government stated the red notice had been issued a day after Saab was detained.[11][12] Venezuela's foreign ministry said the Venezuelan government had employed Saab to obtain food, medicine and other humanitarian goods to help Venezuela combat the COVID-19 pandemic.[12] After his arrest, Venezuela said Saab was a Venezuelan diplomat who was on a "humanitarian mission" to Iran to organise the exchange of Venezuelan gold for Iranian gasoline, an argument rejected by Cape Verde's Barlavento Court of Appeal.[43] While no extradition treaty exists between Cape Verde and the U.S.,[44] legal experts have argued that Cape Verde is part of United Nations conventions that compel the country to comply with an Interpol red notice, regardless of the date when it was issued.[45]

The US deployed the Navy cruiser USS San Jacinto off Cape Verde from November to December 2020, on a secret mission to "deter Venezuela and Iran from plotting to spirit Mr. Saab away from the island". The New York Times reported that "hard-liners at the Justice and State Departments, including Elliott Abrams, the State Department's special envoy for Iran and Venezuela" were worried that Iranian or Venezuelan operatives could help Saab escape and that the US would "lose an unusual opportunity to punish Mr. Maduro".[46]

Saab said in a June 2021 CNN interview that he had been tortured by the authorities in Cape Verde.[47]

The Constitutional Court of Cape Verde heard the parties on 13 August, after Alex Saab's lawyers appealed the decision of the country's Supreme Court of Justice to authorize his extradition to the United States.[48]

In August 2020 Saab asked Cape Verde's Prime Minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, to release him.[49]

The Russian government criticised the detention of Saab and the US extradition request, saying "The practice of seizing citizens of other countries, including the Russian Federation, in third countries on fabricated charges by U.S. law enforcement agencies, has become the infamous ‘business card’ of the United States".[50]

Extradition[]

The Madrid-based law firm of former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón will represent Alex Saab in the extradition case.[51] Saab's defence team said that Saab "is the key figure for the U.S. in their plan to overthrow Nicolás Maduro and keep suffocating the Venezuelan people"[52] and that Saab was on a mission to Iran as a special envoy of Maduro to negotiate fuel and humanitarian supplies at the time of his arrest.[52]

On 30 November 2020, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice ordered Cape Verde to grant house arrest to Alex Saab.[53] On 15 December, the Cape Verde Court of Appeals ruled to refuse the decision, arguing that ECOWAS Court lacks the jurisdiction to force Cape Verde to take decisions.[54] Cape Verde also asked the ECOWAS Court to rescind the decision.[55]

On 29 December, Nicolás Maduro appointed Alex Saab as ambassador to the African Union, seeking to send Saab to Ethiopia and to prevent his extradition.[56] On 5 January 2021, the Cape Verde Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Alex Saab's extradition.[13] On 21 January, authorities of Cape Verde announced that his transfer to house arrest was approved.[57] Experts consulted by Voice of America declared that after the decision, the risk of his escape increased "exponentially".[58]

On 22 February 2021, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida denied a request to cancel Saab's extradition request to the United States.[59]

On 15 March 2021, the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled against Saab's extradition and ordered that he be freed because he was detained before the Interpol Red Notice was issued. It ordered Cape Verde to pay Saab 200,000 euros in compensation. Decisions of the Court of Justice are binding, but the court does not have the authority to enforce its judgements in member states, including Cape Verde.[43][60] On 17 March, Cape Verde's Supreme Tribunal approved Saab's extradition request.[14] Cape Verde later asked the ECOWAS to nulify the decision in favor of Alex Saab.[61]

In June 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Committee asked Cape Verde to suspend Saab's extradition and to ensure he has access to specialised medical care chosen by him. The committee said it wanted time to analyse Saab's case.[62][44][63][64] Cape Verde's Supreme Tribunal rejected the UN committee's request in a 39 pages-long decision, ruling that "Cape Verde is not forced to comply with the request" and that "sufficiently persuasive reasons to justify its reception do not exist". The Tribunal's three judges considered that the requests to the different Member States of the committee "are part of a constructive dialogue" that does not imply "any relationship of subordination", but rather of "complementarity", writing in the ruling that "This body presents its interpretation, which the State considers and responds if it freely deems it necessary to diverge with them". The justices also suggested that the committee did not have knowledge about Saab's record.[65] In response, Saab's lawyer said the court had made a legal, strategic, and ethical mistake and was "send[ing] a clear message to the world that it can exercise its sovereignty to violate human rights while ignoring the norms of international human rights law to which it has subscribed".[66]

On 6 August 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed to hear an appeal by Saab's defence team, which was seeking to have the US courts recognise his diplomatic immunity. The US was required to lodge a response within 30 days.[67] On 24 August, according to CounterPunch, the US asked that the period allowed for its response be extended to 7 October.[68][unreliable source?]

In August 2021, Saab's defence team asked that the site of his detention be moved from the island of Sal to Praia. It said Saab's health had deteriorated and that he needed access to specialist medical care for his cancer. On 1 September 2021, the Barlavento Court of Appeal granted Saab's request.[69][unreliable source?]

Saab's defence team asked the Cape Verde courts to refuse Saab's extradition on the grounds that there were legal irregularities associated with his arrest. By September 2021, the request had reached the Cape Verde Constitutional Court.[69][unreliable source?]

On 8 September 2021 the Constitutional Tribunal of Cape Verde rejected Saab's defence appeal and approved Saab's extradition to the United States on money laundering charges. The 194 pages-long ruling agreed with the decision of two lower courts, the Barlovento Appeals Tribunal and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, who had authorized the extradition on 2020 and March 2021, respectively, as well as supported the position of Cape Verde's government.[15][70][71]

Jorge Rodríguez, Speaker of the ruling party majority National Assembly and head of the government delegation of the talks with the opposition in Mexico, declared on 15 September that Alex Saab had been incorporated to the negotiations.[72]

Support campaign[]

Shortly after his detention, on 14 June, the foreign affairs minister appointed by Maduro, Jorge Arreaza, tweeted in support of Alex Saab, labeling his arrest as "arbitrary" and "illegal".[73][74] Journalist  [es] expressed surprise by the declaration, saying that after years denying or ignoring its relationship with Saab, the government now called him a "government agent" and a "Venezuelan citizen".[75][76]

After Alex Saab's detention, the Venezuelan government started deploying a support campaign in favour of Saab, using government social media accounts and filled Caracas with billboards, murals and graffitis to ask for his liberation. The government designed a communication campaign to build an alternative narrative of Saab's affair, showing him as an ally entrepreneur with diplomatic powers that with his efforts had managed to evade economic sanctions and made possible the arrival of food and industrial parts to Venezuela.[77]

In February 2021, the Venezuelan government organized a concert in support of Alex Saab in Caracas' Diego Ibarra Square,[77][78] asking for his release. Two ruling party deputies visited Nigeria's embassy in Venezuela, also asking for his liberation.[78] Saab's wife, Italian model Camila Fabbri, moved to Moscow with her family.[79]

The same month, Salva Foods employees, which operate in La Guaira Port and are in charge of both importing and assembling CLAP boxes, denounced on 3 February that they were threatened by the company's board with massive layoffs and labor benefits removal if they refused to participate in videos or protests to demand the release of Alex Saab, who is related to the company.[80]

In June 2021, the Venezuelan government started a YouTube series dedicated to Saab.[81]

On 25 August 2020, the Attorney General of Cape Verde opened an investigation into two men who posed as representatives of the Cape Verde government and travelled to Venezuela to discuss Saab's case with President Maduro.[82]

An intelligence report that the Financial Times had access to analysed more than half a million Twitter posts related to Alex Saab and concluded that Nicolás Maduro's administration "and/or its proxies (witting or unwitting) are involved in a coordinated campaign to influence both the government of Cape Verde and its population to obstruct Alex Saab's extradition".[83]

As a response to a BuzzFeed News and the Digital Africa Research Lab (DigiAfricaLab) investigation, Twitter suspended over 1,500 accounts in April 2021 for manipulating the #FreeAlexSaab hashtag, a hashtag used since mid-January as part of a campaign by a Nigerian public relations firm and a United Kingdom-based nonprofit called Digital Good Governance for Africa that paid influencers to tweet about Saab in an effort to sway public opinion and court proceedings in Nigeria and Cape Verde.[84]

In June 2021, the platform Cazadores de Fake News concluded that a marketing company called PromoCoreGH was leading an astroturfing campaign in Ghana in support of Saab, after analyzing 151 725 tweets and fifty Twitter accounts.[85][86]

See also[]

References[]

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  84. ^ "Why Do A Bunch Of Nigerian Twitter Influencers Want This Alleged Money Launderer To Go Free? They're Being Paid". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
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  86. ^ "Operación Alex Ghana: campaña de influencia a favor de Alex Saab en Ghana impulsada por "laboratorio" de Twitter". Cazadores de Fake News (in Spanish). 2021-06-10. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
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