Alex Saab, the former Colombian-Venezuelan minister and businessman identified as the main financial operator of chavismo, pleaded guilty before the U.S. justice system to conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and his agreement with federal prosecutors opens an unprecedented avenue in the Spanish investigation regarding the airline Plus Ultra and former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
The plea agreement, presented before Judge Kathleen Williams in the Federal Court for the Southern District of Florida, includes the forfeiture of 195 million dollars and Saab's full cooperation with prosecutors in ongoing investigations, both in the United States and in other countries, according to ABC.
The confession outlines a plot that began in 2015 with the payment of bribes to obtain contracts from the Venezuelan food distribution program CLAP.
Saab and his partner Álvaro Pulido are classified by the Prosecutor's Office as the "main organizers and leaders" of a scheme that employed shell companies, false invoices, and front men, and which thrived thanks to the "approval, participation, and protection" of high-ranking officials in the Venezuelan government.
Among the most revealing details, Saab acknowledges having agreed to about 17 million dollars in bribes and illegal commissions for José Gregorio Vielma Mora in exchange for his influence in the awarding of contracts, and having met with a high-ranking official identified only as "Official 1" to obtain his "support and protection" through payments made both inside and outside Venezuela.
The money laundering extended to at least nine countries: Antigua, Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, the Marshall Islands, Montenegro, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. Starting in 2019, the scale grew even further as the operation began receiving Venezuelan oil, gold, and other natural resources as payment, organizing ships to transport and sell millions of barrels of crude oil from PDVSA.
The connection to Spain is direct. The Treasury Department had already placed in March 2026 a transfer of more than $519,000 from Plus Ultra to an account at the Swiss bank MBaer within a financial structure linked to PDVSA's corruption.
According to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), that same account was paying an intermediary who distributed funds from the Venezuelan oil corruption among various beneficiaries, including Saab himself.
Now that Saab has acknowledged before the U.S. justice system that he used exactly those types of mechanisms—international accounts, shell companies, transactions involving PDVSA crude—and commits to revealing all the information he possesses, a investigateable link has been established that did not formally exist before.
This does not prove that Plus Ultra was part of the scheme, but it does allow for a connection between its narrative and the financial movements that were already present in the Spanish case.
Zapatero was charged in May of this year by Judge José Luis Calama of the National Court as the alleged leader of a "stable and hierarchical structure" aimed at obtaining benefits through influence in favor of the airline.
Two former executives of Plus Ultra stated that they understood that a commission equivalent to 1% of the public bailout—approximately 530,000 euros—was intended for the so-called "Zapatero group." The former president denied before the judge having influenced the bailout.
The agreement requires Saab to provide, within a maximum of 14 days, a statement regarding all assets he controls or has controlled, including those held in the name of his partner, proxies, or third parties, and to testify before grand juries or in other proceedings when required.
However, it is not automatic that Spain can benefit from that information. Madrid would have to request it through judicial cooperation channels, and Washington would need to decide which documents or testimonies to share, especially if they are part of ongoing investigations.
The case of Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, under investigation in Spain for alleged money laundering of PDVSA funds, illustrates this limit: the National Court has been waiting for months for the United States to respond to a request for judicial assistance to interrogate five key witnesses, with no response so far.
The Prosecutor's Office also warns that the statement signed by Saab "does not yet contain all the facts of the case" and that it has cooperating witnesses, emails, business documentation, and bank records to substantiate the scheme.
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