Attorney ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA has received 43.9 % of the votes in the recent election, making him the probable next President of Colombia; The runoff election is scheduled for June 21. Of interest to observers of the pending Federal case against the accused money launderer, ALEX SAAB MORAN, is the fact that he was the lawyer for Saab for many years in Colombia.
Given that Saab is facing a very long prison sentence in his pending Miami case, with the strong possibility of a second indictment, there is a strong likelihood that he will wisely choose to render substantial assistance to US law enforcement, especially regarding his previous Caribbean money laundering and terrorist financing operations; the issue is just how far his cooperation will reach. That unknown is reportedly making several senior government officials in the Eastern Caribbean states very uneasy at the moment.
A complicating factor is a case against him pending in Colombia, since 2018. With De La Espriella's likely election, and given his longtime relationship with Saab, it is definitely possible that he could drop those charges, and accept Saab after his eventual release from an American prison, which would insulate him from the Caribbean leaders he testified against. It is also possible that Saab's arrangement with the DOJ could result in a short sentence, as a favor to Colombia's new President, who is a known supporter of the Trump Administration.
All of those could be very bad news for the individuals who facilitated Saab's money laundering in Antigua and Dominica, including those in both the public and private sectors. If something more favorable to Saab is the end result of his Federal criminal case, it will be interesting to see if it due to political, and not legal, factors.
Given that Saab is facing a very long prison sentence in his pending Miami case, with the strong possibility of a second indictment, there is a strong likelihood that he will wisely choose to render substantial assistance to US law enforcement, especially regarding his previous Caribbean money laundering and terrorist financing operations; the issue is just how far his cooperation will reach. That unknown is reportedly making several senior government officials in the Eastern Caribbean states very uneasy at the moment.
A complicating factor is a case against him pending in Colombia, since 2018. With De La Espriella's likely election, and given his longtime relationship with Saab, it is definitely possible that he could drop those charges, and accept Saab after his eventual release from an American prison, which would insulate him from the Caribbean leaders he testified against. It is also possible that Saab's arrangement with the DOJ could result in a short sentence, as a favor to Colombia's new President, who is a known supporter of the Trump Administration.
All of those could be very bad news for the individuals who facilitated Saab's money laundering in Antigua and Dominica, including those in both the public and private sectors. If something more favorable to Saab is the end result of his Federal criminal case, it will be interesting to see if it due to political, and not legal, factors.
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