The controversy surrounding Donald Trump's oil deal with Venezuela, which the U. S. president described as" the largest in history," only gets worse as more information become known.
To the question of whether transferring control of 17 fields, which account for roughly 65 billion barrels of Colombian examined pure, is legal, adds the surprise who will be in charge of its exploitation.
The list of members does not include market titans like ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, or BP, relative to what could be expected in a project of this scale. North American Blue Energy Partners ( NABEP), a business with a Barbados registry, was placed in its place, with little public information and no evidence of its presence in other oil markets.
Alejandro Betancourt López, a Colombian businessman whose rich business with the government since the late Hugo Chávez has been the subject of criminal investigations in at least five nations over the past three years, has been the subject of NABEP's attention.
In a statement confirming its participation in the arrangement, Betancourt stated that" Venezuela has abundant natural resources, working people, and an unknown potential. "
He continued, adding that" this deal will destroy that potential for great earnings for both Venezuelans and Americans," and that the U. S. state may not be able to do so. With 35 % of the stock of NABEP, it will be achieved.
On the other hand, they claim that the spouse they chose has proven to be trustworthy from Washington.
A U. S. official told Axios on the condition of anonymity that "( Nicolas ) Maduro would continue to rule if it were not for him. "
In a middle-class home, Leonardo Alejandro Betancourt López was born in Caracas in February 1980.
He graduated from the University of Suffolk ( Massachusetts, USA ), as stated in the profile onO'Hara Financial, a fund he founded to manage his fortune, which some international media outlets claim to be worth US$ 2. 6 billion.
Cuban journalists who have followed in his feet for years claim that it all began with the connections he made at the Instituto Cumbres of Caracas, a secret religious college located in the west of the country's capital, in his syllabus.
Alek Boyd, a Venezuelan researcher who has followed him since 2011, said," He studied with some of his future partners, especially Javier Alvarado Pardi, the son of whom would then be president of Caracas Electricity, deputy minister of energy, and director of Petroleos of Venezuela ( Pdvsa ) under the Chávez government. "
Alvarado told his father that they could solve the issue in the midst of an energy crisis in 2009 and assured him that they could help solve the issue. Despite not having any knowledge in the electronic sector, he also received 12 million-dollar contracts, the London-based communicator continued.
Without bidding, the government awarded 12 contracts to build 11 new power plants and one to modify an existing one for an amount of$ 5, 000 billion between 2009 and 2011. Darwick Associates, the engineering firm Betancourt founded with a cousin, was founded by a cousin.
Shortly thereafter, he and his country partners may adopt the title" who is known to him" as a name.
“In 2011, the financial journalist Juan Carlos Zapata wrote a column that spoke of young people who at that time were just getting 30 and who were doing big business with the so-called Bolivarian government and he named them ‘bolichics’,” César Batiz, director of the Venezuelan digital media El Pitazo and who has also investigated the activities of Betancourt and its associates, told BBC Mundo.
The score is rejected by Betancourt's attorney.
In Jon Sale, the billionaire's letter to the BBC, the internet used the phrase" a group of young people whose only thing in common is that they're successful. "
The constitutional representative cited the alleged connection between the Betancourt community and Hermógenes López, who was Venezuela's president-in-chief between 1887 and 1888, saying that "he was already wealthy and came from a home with origins in Venezuela. "
The concerns started, though, after the name appeared.
Although Derwick assured that all the electrification projects were carried out correctly or were not completed, anti-corruption organizations like Transparency Venezuela and the Organized Crime and Corruption Information Project ( OCCRP ) made up their minds that several of the projects were not completed, which would explain why the nation continues to experience constant power outages to this day.
According to a report released in 2018, Transparency Venezuela determined that 11 of the Derwick tasks may include value US$ 2. 1 billion. This indicates that the authorities received a 138 % surplus.
Despite criticism for its effectiveness in the energy sector, Venezuelan authorities permitted Derwick to enter the petrol sector through Petrozamora, a strategic partnership where Russian companies participated along with Pdvsa, to extract crude from Lake Maracaibo.
However, Betancourt's business actions are not limited to Venezuela only. He purchased a stake in the Spanish organization of sunglasses Hawkers, of which he became a bulk companion and president in 2016, and he started his method of internationalization in the middle of the past decade.
Additionally, it acquired banking companies from Africa and Switzerland at the same time.
According to the studies of Transparency Venezuela, today's organization system includes half a hundred names distributed in 16 places.
As he expanded abroad, concerns about his company also increased as he chose choice, avoiding social press and conducting interviews.
In 2013, US Ambassador to Venezuela, Otto Reich, sued Betancourt and two of his partners for "paying large sums to ( Venezuelan ) public officials in exchange for awarding them contracts. "
Five years later, the official's petition was rejected, but this did not stop the businessman from having legal issues.
The judicial systems in Spain, Switzerland, Andorra, and the United States have opened a number of inquiries into Betancourt and another "bolichics" for their alleged role in various corrupt plots involving PDVSA since the end of the last ten years.
The merchant returned to his former employer in 2025 when American authorities detained him twice in London, where he had spent the last few years.
A few days after, Spanish authorities stormed Alamun Castle, a residence that Betancourt had purchased years earlier in the Toledo state. Both activities were carried out as part of a European lawyer's office-led investigation into alleged money legitimization.
The attorney for Betancourt disputed that those things were made.
It's a group of really effective fresh companies, he said," some have broken the law, others have not, but they've all been put in the same bag. "
But why did the United States select a mate based on whom these kinds of doubts and warnings depend?
In an appointment with a journalist from Venezuela, U. S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave three justifications.
He first argued," It has a record of being able to make oil. "
Some experts claim that NABEP produces about 180, 000 barrels of crude oil per time, which is behind Chevron's more than 200, 000 containers, but some claim that these images need to be properly examined.
He has been able to increase production in Petrozamora ( Lake Maracaibo ), but what he really has done is summarize all the wells he currently controls and say," Look how much I'm producing," said a subject-expert who requested anonymity.
Rubio went on to say that" there was no investigation within our system against him. "
The Justice Department conducted an extensive investigation into it, according to Betancourt's attorney, who previously filed claims.
Betancourt hasn’t been formally charged in the U.S., but some journalistic reports say he appears to be mentioned in investigations related to the Money Flight Operation, a scheme by which approximately $1.2 billion was diverted from Pdvsa between 2014 and 2018.
His aunt Francisco Convit, who escaped a Venezuelan prison last month, appears as accused in this case.
Rubio added a third reason for his statement," He is an individual who supported the opposition a lot, such as during the time of Juan Guaido (... ) and was in a very bad place with ( Nicolas ) Maduro. "
In contrast to others who prospered commercially under the guise of capitalism, Betancourt and his associates don't appear to have any ideological affinities with the Chávez-led movements.
They" only saw a business opportunity and seized it," Batiz said.
" He invited Guaidó's brother, Gustavo, to his castle in Spain, and he approached U. S. officials like Mauricio Claver-Carone or figures close to Trump like ( the former New York mayor ) Rudy Giuliani," Boyd said.
He also played a role in Maduro's failed attempt on April 30, 2019, and as a result, Maduro forced him to keep between Madrid and London and retaliate against him, the reporter continued.
When Tareck El Aissami, the then minister of gas, accused him of being a part of a scheme that distributed$ 4 billion to the state oil company, the Venezuelan security Betancourt was broken in 2022.
But, his accuser was ultimately detained several weeks later for alleged corruption.
The contacts Betancourt established with the United States, in particular with Mauricio Claver-Carone, who was a member of the National Security Council during Trump’s first administration and until a few days served as the Republican president’s unofficial adviser on Venezuela-related matters, would have been crucial to alleviate the judicial pressure that Swiss and Spanish authorities began to exert against him by the end of 2025.
According to the Washington Post, the same year, Swiss government demanded that Switzerland remove its request for the businessman's extradition from European courts.
The petition was addressed by the Swiss authorities, since last May a court in London lifted the ban on leaving the country that had imposed on the businessman, who also has Italian citizenship.
The Westminster judges confirmed to BBC World that" the situation was rejected".
The ban ( of leaving the country ) was lifted because Switzerland did not provide the information the English judges had requested, according to Betancourt's lawyer, who acknowledged that this does not imply the end of the studies in the Alpine nation.
Despite his alleged role as a liaison between Washington and Caracas, Betancourt may have earned more details with the White House.
Axios claims that the business spoke with finally vice president Delcy Rodrguez and persuaded her to speak with secretary Rubio in the first few minutes following the military procedure that came to an end with the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
He "acted as a facilitator. " It was unrelated to Maduro's exit, but because he had one's trust, he served as an intermediary, Sale said.
He is quite proficient. He often succeeds in getting where he needs to be in order to avoid problems and profit, according to Boyd.
