A Colombian businessman accused of laundering money and taking bribes linked to Venezuela’s former President Nicolas Maduro has been arrested by US authorities, with the alleged schemes totalling more than $2 billion. Alvaro Pulido Vargas, 62, was taken into federal custody in southern Florida and is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Tuesday, October 13. The Justice Department says he had been wanted by American authorities for years. Prosecutors have brought two separate federal indictments against Pulido, filed in 2019 and 2021. In the 2021 case, he faces one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and four substantive money-laundering counts, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. The larger allegation involves about $1.6 billion in Venezuelan government contracts awarded between 2015 and 2020 under CLAP, a state-controlled programme intended to provide food and medicine. Prosecutors allege Pulido and four co-defendants obtained lucrative contracts by bribing Venezuelan officials and inflating prices to generate illegal profits. Investigators say the defendants received about $1.6 billion from the Venezuelan government and transferred roughly $180 million through or into the United States. The alleged transactions involved bank accounts in Antigua, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and other jurisdictions. A separate indictment filed in July 2019 alleges that Pulido and businessman Alex Nain Saab Moran, described as an ally of Maduro, laundered about $350 million. Prosecutors allege the pair secured contracts to construct low-income housing, then used fraudulent import documents for materials never brought into Venezuela, with Venezuelan officials allegedly bribed to approve the paperwork. US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said the case involves misuse of government programmes intended to help vulnerable Venezuelans. Pulido is currently in federal custody in southern Florida, charged in two money-laundering indictments and set to appear in court on October 13.