Alex Saab met with US law enforcement before his indictment in 2019

(CNN) – Alex Saab, Colombian businessman and alleged financier of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, secretly met with US law enforcement before his indictment on money laundering charges in 2019, according to court records filed with the District Court. from the United States, Southern District of New York, and obtained by CNN.

The disclosure was made by the attorney for University of Miami professor Bruce Bagley in a judgment first delivered Tuesday. Bagley was convicted of two money laundering charges related to the payments he received from Saab. Bagley is currently awaiting sentencing.

In the heavily censored court filing, Peter Quijano, Bagley’s attorney, said the money was used to pay the attorneys representing Colombian businessmen in the United States, “who advised Saab and accompanied him to meetings with him. United States government, during which Saab provided information on the Maduro government. “

Bagley claims that he made the payments because Saab was unable to pay his lawyers directly in the United States, due to its close ties to the Venezuelan government. Bagley was told that “the federal police authorities wanted Alex Saab to provide intelligence information regarding the Venezuelan government and the meetings had already started,” his lawyer said.

“It was mandatory that those payments from Saab (to lawyers in the United States) had to remain undetectable within the international money exchange system,” explained the lawyer. “The concern was not that the United States found out about these payments but that individuals in and the Venezuelan government would discover them.”

The 27-page document was uploaded to the court file on Tuesday, but following the decision of District Judge Jed Rakoff, it was removed from the case file. A revised version of the same document, with the above redacted information, was uploaded to the court’s electronic records on Wednesday.

Saab had been sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury and was wanted by the South Florida District of the Department of Justice on money laundering charges.

He was extradited from Cape Verde to the United States on October 16, 2021 after a lengthy legal battle. He was detained by a red notice from Interpol on June 12, 2020, when his plane landed on the country’s Sal island to refuel en route to Iran.