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Maduro ally Alex Saab appears in court to face corruption charges
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET]
A businessman who prosecutors say was a major conduit for corruption by Nicolás Maduro's inner circle appeared for the first time in Miami federal court Monday after a weekend extradition that has further strained relations between the US and Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south...
's socialist government.

Alex Saab's legs shook nervously while seated as he waited, handcuffed and in an orange jumpsuit, for the start of the hearing, which took place via Zoom with more than 350 journalists, gawking opponents of Maduro and members of Saab's family in attendance.

Saab's extradition to the US from Cape Verde, where he was arrested 16 months ago, has already ricocheted far and wide.

Only hours after Saab was placed on a Department of Justice aircraft on Saturday, Maduro's government suspended negotiations with Venezuela's US-backed opposition. It also threw back into jail six American oil executives it accuses of corruption. They had been under house arrest in another politically charged case marked by allegations of wrongful detention.
Those would be the former Citgo executives arrested in 2017, sometimes called the CITGO 6, five naturalized American citizens and one permanent resident (green card holder?).
The Maduro government has labelled Saab a diplomatic envoy and has spared no effort to free the Colombian-born businessman, who was arrested on a US warrant in the African archipelago while making a fuel stop en route to Iran.

On Monday, it was joined by ally Russia, whose ambassador in Caracas tweeted his "most energetic and categorical protest against the kidnapping" of Saab.

Saab, 49, raised his bushy eyebrows but was largely silent as magistrate Judge John O’Sullivan, through an interpreter, informed him that he was being charged with eight counts of money laundering. The judge set another hearing in two weeks where Saab will have the opportunity to enter a plea.

Saab, was indicted in 2019 on money-laundering charges for allegedly bribing Venezuelan officials and falsifying import documents to pocket more than $350 million from a low-income housing project. On the same day as his indictment, he was sanctioned by the Trump administration for allegedly utilizing a network of shell companies spanning the globe — The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
, Hong Kong, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates — to hide windfall profits from overvalued food contracts.

But Saab's connections extend much deeper.

Among those the US claims he paid to win government contracts are Maduro's stepsons. Commonly known in Venezuela as "Los Chamos," slang for "the kids," the three adult children of first lady Cilia Flores from a previous relationship have themselves been under investigation by prosecutors in Miami for several years, two people familiar with the US investigation told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
The Times of Israel adds:
A fugitive businessman accused of acting as a money launderer for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime said Sunday he would not collaborate with the United States, a day after he was extradited to the country from Cape Verde.

Past media reports have said some of the laundered cash ended up with the Hezbollah terror group, Iran’s proxy terrorist militia in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred 2021-10-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=615415