Álvaro Pulido Vargas was presented along with six former officials “linked to corruption schemes in the Baruta Mayor’s Office (Miranda state municipality), PDVSA and Criptoactivos,” reported the Minister of Communication and Information, Freddy Ñáñez on his Twitter account.
Regarding the Colombian businessman, the minister assured that he was a “financial operator” related to the former Chavista deputy Hugbel Roa, to whom the National Assembly (AN, Legislative), with an official majority, lifted parliamentary immunity last March, after what was arrested for being part of one of the corruption schemes.
Pulido Vargas and Alex Saab, the latter imprisoned in Miami, are accused by the US Justice of transferring from Venezuela, through the North American country, approximately 350 million dollars to accounts they owned or controlled in other countries.
Accused of “conspiring to launder money from contracts obtained by bribery”
The indictment alleges that, between 2011 and at least 2015, both businessmen conspired with others to launder the proceeds of a corruption network based on bribes aimed at obtaining contracts to carry out public projects and fraud against the foreign exchange control system in Venezuela.
In 2021, the US offered a $10 million reward for any information leading to the arrest or conviction of Pulido Vargas. On the other hand, the Venezuelan minister pointed out that, among those presented, is the director of Municipal Engineering of the Mayor’s Office of Baruta, Harold Rafael Sosa Padilla, and the deputy director of the same office, Juan Carlos Posner Pimentel.
In addition, Juan Manuel Almeida Morgado, Jorge Luis Almeida Morgado and Carlos Jesús Almeida Morgado, identified as technological operators of the “Cripto-PDVSA plot”, and Pedro Alejandro Herrera Araque, “Hugbel Roa’s brother-in-law”, were presented.
