Colombian businessman Alex Saab, reversed his not-guilty plea this Tuesday and admitted to a single count of money laundering before a federal court in Miami, closing a legal saga that has spanned more than six years and two continents.

As part of a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors, Saab agreed to surrender $195 million and to cooperate with ongoing federal investigations, a deal that reshapes both his legal fate and the diplomatic narrative surrounding his case.

RELATED: Venezuelan Assembly President Reveals Alex Saab’s U.S. Agency Ties Since 2019

The charge stems from contracts tied to food imports into Venezuela. Federal prosecutors allege the scheme relied on a network of shell companies and falsified documentation to funnel bribery proceeds through the U.S. financial system, though the specific facts Saab admitted to are narrower than the full scope of the original indictment.

The count he pleaded guilty to carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but under the agreement, prosecutors committed to recommending a term at the low end of the applicable sentencing range, with the possibility of a further reduction if his cooperation proves valuable to investigators.

Text reads: “Alex Saab has just pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy.”

Saab was arrested in Cape Verde in June 2020 while on a diplomatic mission to Iran on behalf of the Venezuelan government, and was extradited to the United States in October 2021. He remained in U.S. custody until December 2023, when he was released as part of a prisoner exchange negotiated between Washington and Venezuela.

Saab’s Deportation and Diplomacy

In January 2026, prosecutors in Rome closed a money-laundering investigation into Saab and his wife, Camila Fabri, affirming their innocence in a case that had also drawn scrutiny from authorities in Switzerland, Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia. Then, on May 16, the Venezuelan government itself moved to deport Saab to the United States, with the country’s migration agency citing immigration law and pointing to the criminal investigations he faced in the U.S.

Days after the deportation, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez addressed the matter before Venezuelan legislature, confirming Saab’s Colombian nationality and stating that Venezuela could not obstruct a deportation process. Rodríguez placed the episode within the broader framework of prisoner-swap diplomacy between Caracas and Washington, recalling the December 2023 exchange that freed Saab and citing later swaps involving a Venezuelan child and 252 migrants held at El Salvador’s CECOT detention facility.

With Saab now back on U.S. soil and formally convicted by his own admission, the case moves into a sentencing phase. which will be known next January. No hearing date has yet been set, and the extent of his cooperation with federal authorities -a central term of the plea deal- has not been made public. For now, compliance with the agreement will determine the next chapter of a case that has entangled two governments and multiple international investigations.

IN THIS ARTICLE