Maduro Ally Alex Saab Pleads Guilty in $195M US Money Laundering Case

In a Florida federal courtroom, Alex Saab — businessman, fixer, and trusted operative of Nicolás Maduro — admitted to laundering nearly $200 million in illicit funds, closing a chapter in one of the most consequential corruption cases tied to Venezuela's embattled government. His guilty plea is less a single legal outcome than a signal: that the financial scaffolding holding authoritarian power together is neither invisible nor invincible. The United States, choosing economic and legal pressure over direct confrontation, has found in Saab a rare and telling crack in Maduro's inner circle.