A federal judge in Florida has awarded $314 million in damages to three American citizens who say they were kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured in Venezuela under orders tied to Nicolás Maduro's government. U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles issued the 19-page default judgment on July 14, ruling in favor of Jerrel Kenemore, Jason Saad and Edgar Marval after none of the named defendants — including Maduro himself — responded to the August 2025 lawsuit.
The ruling is now the largest of its kind in a growing line of Anti-Terrorism Act cases brought by Americans detained in Venezuela, surpassing the $153 million awarded to attorney Carlos Marrón in January 2023. More significant than the dollar figure is the language: Gayles formally designated the network as the "Maduro Criminal Conspiracy," writing that kidnappings "were just one of many crimes committed in order to support Maduro's dictatorial rule."
What the ruling covers
Named defendants include Maduro, Colombian businessman Alex Saab, five senior Venezuelan officials, the Cártel de los Soles network, and state oil company PDVSA. Kenemore, a Texan computer professional, spent 643 days detained after being seized near the Colombian border in 2022; Saad, an Alabama construction worker, and Marval, a Florida businessman, describe similar ordeals. All three allege they were held by SEBIN/DGCIM intelligence police, including at Caracas's El Helicoide prison — the same facility Venezuela's interim government pledged to close earlier this year.
The plaintiffs describe electrocution, beatings causing back fractures, and stress positions. Notably excluded from liability was acting president Delcy Rodríguez, whose attorneys successfully argued she may retain sovereign immunity as a recognized head of state — a claim the plaintiffs are contesting.
Observers are reading: Why Delcy Rodríguez's sovereign immunity claim could determine whether future officials face similar civil exposure.
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A verdict with no collector
The $314 million judgment will likely never be paid. Maduro and Saab are under sanction, PDVSA's assets are largely shielded, and the ruling's power lies less in enforcement than in designation — a federal court's formal record that Venezuela's state apparatus functioned as a criminal enterprise. That finding, more than the sum attached to it, is what may outlast this case.
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