Miami, Feb 16 (AP) A Colombian businessman linked to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was secretly signed up by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a cooperating source in 2018 and gave agents information about bribes he paid to Venezuelan officials, according to new court records unsealed Wednesday in the closely watched corruption case.

Alex Saab forfeited nearly $10 million of his fortune as part of his cooperation agreement with the US, which included several meetings with US law enforcement in his native Colombia and elsewhere.

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However, he was deactivated as a source after failing to meet a May 30, 2019, deadline to surrender himself. Two months later, he was indicted in Miami federal court on charges of siphoning off millions from state contracts to build affordable housing for Venezuela's socialist government.

The US has described Saab as the main conduit for corruption in Venezuela, someone who reaped huge windfall profits from dodgy contracts to import food while millions in the South American nation starved. The Maduro government considers him a diplomat who was kidnapped while on a humanitarian mission made more urgent by US sanctions. (AP)

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(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)