Arrest warrants were issued in Italy for Alex Saab, his wife and three of their relatives for money laundering

Roman Camilla Fabri is a 28-year-old former Italian model, and is the wife of Alex Saab, the alleged front man of Nicolás Maduro who is currently imprisoned in the United States. These are two of the five names listed on an arrest warrant issued by an investigating judge in Rome following investigations into money laundering by the Monetary Unit of the Financial Police of Rome, coordinated by prosecutor Francesco Cascini.

The other three persons who are requested by the courts are Fabri's sister's husband, Lorenzo Antonelli, who is abroad, and the wife's two aunts, Arianna and Patrizia Fiore, aged 47 and 45 respectively, the only ones present in Rome when the orders were issued.

According to the Corriere della sera, they are all charged with criminal association and various cases of money laundering, self-laundering and fraudulent transfer of assets.

This is the conclusion of a complex investigation that began three years ago and that intertwines the humanitarian aid scandal in Venezuela and the banks of countries willing to hide the immense capital of Saab, who allegedly seized some of the funds allocated to humanitarian aid for the population and then hide them in Russia. and in some tax havens.

Alex Saab had also set up numerous companies through which he laundered illicit proceeds.

In October 2019, following an investigation by an Italian police unit specializing in finance, investigating judge Francesca Ciranna ordered the seizure of Fabri's property for the alleged crime of money laundering.

The fact is that the young Italian woman came to be in the eye of the authorities after they detected that, with a declared monthly salary of 1,840 euros, she could afford luxuries such as paying 5,800 euros in rent per month and owning a Range Rover Evoque vehicle valued at 54,500 euros.

Those moves, having acquired a property worth around five million euros, located on the fourth floor of Via Condotti, one of the most sophisticated streets in Rome, as well as 1.8 million euros in a current account opened with an Italian bank, were clear indications that something was wrong.

This last sum is the equivalent of what Fabri's two aunts would have pocketed for having acted as front men in an attempt to sift the illicit origin of the money, as the Italian newspaper found out.

As for Antonelli, husband of Beatrice, Camilla's sister, is credited with a central role in the history of the apartment in via Condotti, summarized by the investigating judge at the time of the abduction: “It follows from the contract that Fabri has purchased the right of residence for a lifetime of 4 million 275 thousand euros, while that the bare property is acquired by the English company Kinloch Investments, represented by Lorenzo Antonelli, for a value of 475,000 euros. Antonelli emerges as the owner of several companies, all with offices coinciding with Kinloch. But a survey of the English Chamber of Commerce shows that the share capital of the Chamber of Commerce is entirely in the hands of Camilla Fabri.”

After a period in Russia, where the couple's second child was born, Fabri is now in Venezuela, where she runs a public campaign for the release of her husband.

Maduro regime officials consider Saab to be the victim of a “kidnapping” and have tried to gather popular support in Venezuela to demand his freedom. At the time of his arrest, they said he was on a humanitarian mission to Iran to negotiate the purchase of food, which has become more difficult to import, as U.S. sanctions have severed Venezuela's ties with the Western financial system, compounding an economic collapse marked by years of hyperinflation , blackouts and widespread shortages.

But as the case progresses, information has emerged that in the years leading up to his arrest, Saab revealed to U.S. authorities information about the bribes he paid to senior Maduro government officials.

More details were released on Wednesday about that cooperation with US authorities, after Judge Robert Scola, who presides over the criminal case, removed confidentiality stamps from a procedural order he issued a year ago, while Saab sought to avoid his extradition to the United States.

According to the newly unsealed document, Saab and his lawyers met with DEA and FBI agents in Colombia's capital in early 2016. On June 2, 2018, he admitted to agents that he had paid bribes to government officials in exchange for housing contracts. Less than a month later, on June 27, he became an “active informant,” meaning that he probably received instructions from US officials. He also agreed to hand over the profits made from his shady businesses.

During a meeting with US prosecutors in Europe in April 2019, both sides discussed the delivery of Saab by May 30 of that year, according to a summary of the facts included in Scola's five-page order.

But the deadline passed and Saab never showed up, ending all communication with US officials, according to the court file. He was charged a few weeks later.

(With information from AP)

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