UM professor plans to plead guilty to money laundering, New York court records show
University of Miami professor Bruce Bagley, recognized as an international scholar on drug cartels and money laundering, plans to plead guilty next week to a criminal conspiracy of hiding money in U.S. bank accounts for a Colombian businessman accused of stealing millions of dollars from the Venezuelan government
Bagley, who was indicted on a money laundering conspiracy count and two related charges, initially pleaded not guilty in the New York case linked to South Florida. But a notice filed this week in the Manhattan federal court indicates that the 73-year-old UM professor is going to change his plea at a hearing on March 20.
It is not clear whether Bagley will plead guilty to the three charges in the indictment or only to the main conspiracy count in the proposed plea agreement. Each of the three offenses carries up to 20 years in prison. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York declined to comment Thursday. Bagley’s defense attorney, Peter Quijano, did not respond to a request for comment.
Federal prosecutors say Bagley, who was often quoted by the news media on subjects ranging from violent drug traffickers in Mexico to guerrilla politics in Colombia, parlayed his mastery of Latin American crime into a secret side job — laundering at least $3 million in dirty Venezuelan money through his own U.S. bank accounts and keeping about $300,000 as a fee for himself.
An FBI investigation culminated in mid-November when South Florida agents arrested Bagley, shocking the University of Miami and fellow academics across Latin America. UM officials said he was placed on administrative leave and declined further comment. Faculty members who know him said Bagley, despite a seemingly fruitful career in academia, was having personal and financial problems.
According to the New York indictment, the illicit funds were diverted from a food company controlled by a Colombian individual into Bagley’s South Florida bank accounts as a consultant, according to the indictment. While that individual is not identified, the Miami Herald has learned from several law enforcement and legal sources that he is Colombian businessman Alex Saab.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Saab for allegedly profiting from a no-bid contract to import food to Venezuela for President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government — the very deal in which Bagley consulted Saab, sources told the Herald. In July, Saab also was indicted in Miami federal court on charges of money laundering tied to a public housing program run by Maduro. However, Bagley was not implicated in that case.
Saab, who is a fugitive, could not be reached for comment. His defense attorney, Maria Dominguez, did not respond to a request for comment.
In November, federal prosecutors in New York City announced Bagley’s indictment on charges of money laundering and conspiracy after he “opened bank accounts for the express purpose of laundering money for corrupt foreign nationals.”
“Today’s charges of money laundering and conspiracy should serve as an object lesson for Bruce Bagley, who now faces a potential tenure in federal prison,” Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
He was charged in New York because some of the money allegedly passed through accounts in that state before it was deposited into Bagley’s company bank accounts.
According to the indictment, Bagley was raking in tens of thousands of dollars by helping wash corrupt cash. State records show he had operated “Bagley Consultants,” along with his wife, Annette Bagley.
Bagley, who after his arrest was released on a $300,000 bond, initially told local news media that he had done nothing wrong.
“Not guilty — that’s how I’m feeling,” Bagley told a reporter with CBS4, the Herald’s news partner. “They’ve got it all wrong.”
Bagley is a longtime UM international relations professor who wrote the book “Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime, and Violence in the Americas Today.”
Over the years, he became a high-profile figure among the university’s cadre of experts. Bagley had appeared in newspapers such as the Miami Herald, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
He was quoted as recently as early November in Australia’s Daily Telegraph for a story about the drug violence wracking Mexico. “This was an unmitigated debacle,” Bagley told the newspaper about a battle between cartel members and police that killed 13 people.
Bagley even served as an expert witness in court. The pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, being sued over the opioid crisis, hired him to testify about illegal fentanyl arriving in the United States from China and Mexico.
In October, Bagley took the stand as an expert witness for the defense at a major drug-trafficking trial in Miami federal court. The trial featured a Colombian syndicate accused of conspiring to ship 20 tons of cocaine into the United States.
Three years ago, Bagley also organized a three-day conference at UM on climate change and energy security, an event that drew government leaders from across the world. Bagley was photographed, laughing, alongside UM President Julio Frenk.
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 2:03 PM.