Arrested in Switzerland in June 2022 and extradited to the United States in August of the same year, the Argentine businessman was sentenced to 30 months in prison. His process included a multi-million dollar bail, a legal dispute with his defense team, and a plea agreement negotiated over several months. He is now on supervised release, as stipulated by court rules.
Luis Fernando Vuteff, prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice for his role in a money laundering scheme linked to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, transitioned from an international arrest in Switzerland to a federal conviction in Miami. His case is a crucial piece of the financial puzzle within Chavismo and the networks of corruption operating in Europe and Latin America.
Luis Fernando Vuteff, an Argentine businessman and son-in-law of ex-Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, was charged in the United States for his alleged involvement in an international money laundering network tied to PDVSA. According to court records, Vuteff remained detained in Switzerland for about a month and a half before being extradited to the U.S. in August 2022. His formal arrest occurred on August 18, 2022, in Miami, marking the point at which his case fell under the jurisdiction of the Southern District Court of Florida, where he faced charges for conspiracy to commit money laundering and transnational financial crimes.
The formal indictment was presented on July 12, 2022, accusing him of conspiracy to launder money derived from bribes obtained through contracts with PDVSA and operations in the Venezuelan exchange system.
Shortly after his arrival in the United States, on September 30, 2022, Judge Jonathan Goodman established the conditions of his bail:
- A personal recognizance bond (PSB) of $1,000,000, and
- A secured bond of $2,000,000, with 10% payment and bound by Nebbia conditions, requiring proof of the legal origin of the funds.
The court set these measures due to the magnitude of the case and judicial concerns over the risk of flight and the source of the funds used by Vuteff.
Plea Agreement Negotiation
According to the court records of the case, the plea agreement negotiations were based on key events:
- The starting point was the formal indictment on July 12, 2022, after which the parties began evaluating evidence and potential agreements.
- However, the process was complicated by a motion to disqualify defense attorneys, which was not resolved until December 5, 2023.
- From that date onwards, formal negotiations intensified, progressing through the first months of 2024.
- A change of plea hearing was scheduled for April 15, 2024, and finally, on May 14, 2024, Vuteff pleaded guilty through a formal agreement accompanied by a substitute information.
In total, the active negotiations for the plea agreement lasted between 4 to 5 months (from December 2023 to May 2024), although the overall process from the initial indictment spanned nearly two years due to appeals, continuances, and legal disputes.
Sentencing and Serving Time
On December 17, 2024, the Southern District Court of Florida sentenced Luis Fernando Vuteff to 30 months in federal prison for conspiracy to launder money derived from a corruption scheme at Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), known as “Money Flight.” At that time, Vuteff had already accumulated about 28 months of pre-trial detention since his arrest in Switzerland on June 21, 2022, and his extradition to the U.S. in August 2022, followed by an initial period in federal custody until his release on bail in October 2022.
The judge recognized that time as “time served,” and the Federal Bureau of Prisons applied credits for good behavior, reducing the remaining jail time to just a few additional months. By mid-2025, Vuteff was placed under federal supervised release, a regime that will continue until December 2026, under judicial monitoring and migration restrictions, with a status hearing set for June 18, 2025, and a requirement to report to complete any remaining time by June 20, 2025.
The case against Luis Fernando Vuteff is part of a broad corruption scheme linked to Venezuelan corruption and PDVSA’s money laundering, which also implicated bankers, intermediaries, and former officials associated with Chavismo.
Vuteff, son-in-law of ex-Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, facilitated the movement of illicit funds through international financial structures in Europe and Latin America.
The U.S. Department of Justice continues to investigate the flow of Venezuelan-origin money in foreign banks, considered part of the transnational corruption scheme of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.