Colombia's Trump-aligned presidential frontrunner Abelardo de la Espriella, who led Sunday's first-round election with 43.7% of the vote and advanced to a June 21 runoff, is facing renewed scrutiny after journalist Daniel Coronell published documents allegedly showing transfers from companies linked to Alex Saab, the businessman long accused by U.S. prosecutors of serving as Nicolás Maduro's financial operator and currently held in U.S. custody.
The investigation, published by Colombia's Cambio, cites records from a closed civil case in Florida showing more than $370,000 in transfers made in 2014 while De la Espriella was actively representing Saab as his lawyer.
De la Espriella, a hard-right political outsider who has openly expressed admiration for Donald Trump, Nayib Bukele and Javier Milei, outperformed pre-election polling to finish ahead of leftist candidate Iván Cepeda and emerge as the favorite heading into the runoff.
Saab on the other hand was extradited to the United States last week by Venezuela's interim government and appeared in federal court in Miami on money laundering and bribery charges.
According to Coronell, the transfers originated from Group Grand Limited, a Hong Kong-based company sanctioned by Washington over its role in Venezuela's CLAP food distribution program, and Consorcio Estructuras Metálicas, tied to a housing project through which Saab and associate Álvaro Pulido allegedly received hundreds of millions of dollars for largely uncompleted work.
One document cited in the report is a May 1, 2014 letter bearing De la Espriella's letterhead confirming three transfers of $199,950, $99,950 and $74,950 routed through Antigua-based Global Bank of Commerce to a Miami law firm specializing in tax matters. Coronell noted each transfer was set just below round-number thresholds, a practice associated with efforts to avoid automatic financial reporting requirements.
A separate email sent by Saab to De la Espriella in April 2015 reportedly included SWIFT confirmations matching two of the payments and listed the purpose as "International Tax Advisory."
De la Espriella did not respond to Coronell's questions. Earlier this year, former Colombian police chief Óscar Naranjo said he had "an abysmal difference in life" with the candidate, noting that he had defended "many of the most important criminals" pursued during his career. Press freedom groups have also accused De la Espriella of repeatedly using legal actions against journalists as a form of judicial harassment.
