President Trump’s historic Venezuela oil deal is being led by a controversial figure – Alejandro Betancourt, who has faced money-laundering accusations from nations around the world over the past decade.
The deal, announced by Trump last week, will give the White House majority control over 65 billion barrels, or about 20% of Venezuela’s reserves, while the US’ own reserves dwindle amid the Middle East conflict.
Betancourt’s North American Blue Energy Partners – the second-largest private oil producer in North America – will get access to 17 fields, the backing of the US military and 100-year concessions from Venezuelan authorities.
The 46-year-old oil baron reportedly played a crucial role in helping the Trump administration oust Nicolas Maduro from power – and has his own checkered past, including a decade-long money-laundering probe, shady government contracts and a raid of his Spanish castle.
“When you talk about controversial figure – look, guys, there’s a reality here, okay? And…you have to deal with the dynamics sometimes that are in place in order to get to where you want to go,” a US official said Tuesday during a White House-organized press call.
“This is a proven operator … I’m not nominating anyone for sainthood here. What I am telling you is that this is a person that, in the past, has been helpful to the United States government.”
His role in Maduro’s ouster
The controversial man from Caracas – whose full name is Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López – was reportedly a critical part of the Trump administration’s mission earlier this year to capture Venezuelan dictator Maduro and his wife and fly them to New York.
“No Betancourt, no energy-security deal,” a US official told Axios. “And Maduro might still be in power if it wasn’t for him.”
In late 2025, as Trump demanded Maduro step down, Betancourt spoke to Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez – now the country’s interim president – to feel out whether she would take over as his replacement, according to reports.
Betancourt was also reportedly in regular contact with Mauricio Claver-Carone, seen as Trump’s Venezuela go-to, to discuss how they could keep oil flowing through the nation if Maduro was removed.
During Trump’s first administration, Betancourt connected with Claver-Carone, then the director of Western Hemisphere affairs for the National Security Council.
Betancourt also allied with Juan Guaidó, the head of Venezuela’s national assembly, in his opposition efforts – traveling to Moscow to hand-deliver a letter asking Russia to stop backing Maduro.
On Jan. 3, during Maduro’s capture, dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve,” Claver-Caron was communicating via phone with Betancourt, who in turn was communicating with Rodriguez, according to Axios.
At first, Rodriguez “thought the US had killed Maduro, that she had been double-crossed, and [she] was very angry and very scared,” a Betancourt ally told Axios.
“He had to talk her down, playing the good cop,” and he eventually persuaded her to speak with Secretary of State Marco Rubio about filling the now-vacant presidency in Venezuela, the report said.
Money-laundering accusations
Betancourt has faced multiple investigations accusing him of money laundering in Spain, Switzerland and the US. He has not been formally charged.
A $1.2 billion money-laundering probe launched by US investigators in 2016 led to a federal indictment of his cousin, Francisco Convit, and other Venezuelans.
In 2019, after reports identified Betancourt as a co-conspirator in the money-laundering scheme, he hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer, who told top DOJ officials that Betancourt didn’t know about the crime, according to the Washington Post.
Giuliani and two associates had also stayed at El Alamin, Betancourt’s $30 million Spanish castle, to meet with an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, urging him to investigate Joe Biden, who was then running against Trump, the report said.
Six years later, Swiss authorities took up the US money-laundering case, convincing Spanish authorities to raid Betancourt’s castle and his office in Madrid.
This spring, US officials – including then-Attorney General Pam Bondi – called Swiss authorities to ask them to push off the investigation, since the case was preventing Betancourt from leaving his home in the UK to finish Trump’s oil deal in DC, according to the report.
Betancourt was facing travel restrictions from the British government, though he was allowed to shuttle between his Oxfordshire mansion and Chelsea house by private helicopter, according to the Times.
In May, Swiss officials told UK authorities they were not prepared to proceed, so Betancourt was returned his Venezuelan and Italian passports, according to the Times.
He was also given a multiple-entry visa to the United States so he could meet with Trump administration officials, according to reports.
“People who have historically been targets of the US government, and at one point could have been sanctioned, are now benefiting from these deals because the US wants results from Venezuela,” a US-based source in the energy sector told the Times.
No-bid government contracts
US officials have praised Betancourt’s efforts to oust Maduro and secure an oil deal – but Venezuelans have denounced the reported billionaire as a corrupt “bolichico,” a slang term for young, wealthy businessmen who won big state contracts under Hugo Chavez.
In the 2010s, Betancourt and his business partners were awarded state contracts worth $5 billion to build power plants during the country’s energy crisis – even though they had no experience with such work.
An investigation at the time by Transparency International estimated that Betancourt’s energy firm, Derwick Associates, had overbilled by $2.9 billion.
Critics also accused Derwick of buying up defective, second-hand turbines and improperly installing them, leading to widespread blackouts.
In defamation lawsuits against its critics, which were either settled out of court or dismissed, Derwick argued the glitches were due to the Venezuelan government’s failure to maintain the plants.
When asked about Betancourt’s controversies, a US official said: “I’m being blunt. We make choices like this all over the world every time. I mean, geopolitics is often not a choice between the ideal and the imperfect. It is often you’re trying to navigate what’s the best outcome, and you have to work with the factors that you have in place.
“But this individual in particular is a proven oil operator who we believe can, given his knowledge of the industry – and in fact, is already doing it – and bring these fields into productive capacity that produces the oil necessary to generate the revenue necessary for Venezuela to emerge from really 20 years of being in the hole.”
His business background
After making a fortune from the power plant contracts, Betancourt bought a stake in a company that operated oil fields in western Venezuela, forming the basis of NABEP.
His other business ventures include Hawkers, a Spanish sunglasses brand, and Auro New Transport, which sells taxi licenses to rideshare apps like Uber.
Betancourt was born in 1980 and raised in a wealthy, influential family in Caracas. His great-grandfather was Hermógenes López, who served as acting president of Venezuela.
Betancourt has said he holds an economics and business degree from Suffolk University in Boston and master’s degree in business from Oxford University.
According to reports, he was married in 2012 in a lavish ceremony at a Madrid monastery.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
