By Sarah Kinosian, Marianna Parraga and Gram Slattery
Now, after assisting U.S. authorities ahead of the capture of authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro, Alejandro Betancourt is Washington’s key partner in an unusual oil agreement with Caracas. CARACAS/MIAMI, Sept 5 – The billionaire who helped broker the Trump administration’s sweeping long-term oil deal with Venezuela was until recently a target of U.S. money-laundering investigations involving funds embezzled from the state-owned oil company PDVSA. The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital takes a 35% stake in North American Blue Energy Partners , Betancourt’s company and a known crude producer in Venezuela. The State Department gets the right to buy 20% of NABEP’s oil at cost, and preferential access to the remaining 80% of output.
The U.S. gains access to about one-fifth of Venezuela’s crude reserves for decades, according to last week’s announcement.
He also facilitated negotiations with officials including Delcy Rodriguez, who became interim president after Maduro’s capture. Government data later showed many of the plants operated at a fraction of their intended capacity or not at all, as Venezuela’s power grid continued to suffer widespread blackouts. He added that Betancourt had been helpful to the first Trump administration.
The deal marks a striking change of fortune for Betancourt, who four people familiar with U.S. policy in Venezuela said was key to U.S. strategy and planning in the lead-up to the January 3 operation that removed former President Maduro from power and flew him to New York to face charges of drug-trafficking, which Maduro denies. Because he understands the oil business in both countries, mauricio Claver-Carone, a Miami businessman and former Trump administration adviser who implemented U.S. policy in Caracas in an unofficial role, told Reuters last month that Betancourt is a useful intermediary between the Trump administration and Rodriguez.
Asked about the investigations of Betancourt, a U.S. official who declined to be named said most of the legal challenges were nearly a decade old — and that he currently has no legal problems in the United States. NABEP’s record of pumping oil in Venezuela made Betancourt the best partner to help boost output under the arrangement, the official said. In the months before Maduro’s capture, the billionaire provided information that helped enforce a U.S. naval blockade targeting sanctioned oil tankers operating in Venezuela, which led to the seizure or interdiction of more than a dozen vessels, according to the four people who spoke on condition of anonymity. After the investigation stalled, U.S. officials pressured the Swiss government to ease its inquiries into the tycoon, said four people familiar with the matter. Switzerland, which was also investigating Betancourt for money-laundering, dropped its request to extradite him from the United Kingdom in May, said the sources. Betancourt and Derwick have repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said the facilities were completed and that later failures resulted from mismanagement by state authorities.
Rodriguez told a press conference on Wednesday that all legal proceedings against Betancourt’s companies in Venezuela were dismissed years ago.
