A Geneva, Switzerland prosecutor has closed an investigation into Alex Saab for alleged money laundering through Swiss accounts abroad, a spokesman for that office announced Thursday.
Saab is a Colombian businessman related to Venezuela and, at the moment, is in Cape Verde in the middle of an extradition request to the United States to face charges for alleged corruption that aims to involve the Government of Caracas, says the Ministry for Communication and information.
The arrest of the official, the Venezuelan authorities have remarked, is part of the "obsessive campaign orchestrated by the outgoing administration of the White House against the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro", with the aim of politically and diplomatically undermining this South American nation .
Swiss prosecutors concluded that the evidence was insufficient to bring formal charges against Saab and others. The Geneva prosecutor weighed the information from the Union of Swiss Banks (UBS) which showed movements between accounts in banks only in Switzerland, and pointed out that "as is", there is no further evidence to continue the investigation for the alleged money laundering charge. capital and the Swiss Public Ministry will mobilize to suspend these criminal proceedings.
The United States wants Saab to face charges for what prosecutors say would have been a "corrupt" deal on Venezuelan government food subsidies. The Swiss investigation into Saab was sparked by several banks submitting reports to a Swiss government office tasked with evaluating reports of suspicious funds.
Venezuela has defended Saab's innocence and denounces that it is a persecution by the United States, as an expression of the bilateral conflict.
