Alejandro Betancourt: Trump's Venezuelan Oil Oligarch Under European Investigation

Within days of the White House confirming the broad outline of an energy security agreement with Venezuela, the identity of its principal architect and beneficiary has provoked controversy stretching from Caracas to Washington. Alejandro Betancourt, 46, whose company North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) has been awarded the rights to exploit 17 Venezuelan oil fields, remains under criminal investigation for money laundering in both Switzerland and Spain, according to El País, which has reported extensively on the matter.

The terms of the arrangement are, by any measure, extraordinary. NABEP will have privileged access to a quarter of Venezuela's crude reserves for one century. The United States Department of Defense — referred to by American officials as the Department of War — has taken a 35 per cent stake in the company. Washington thereby secures the right to purchase 20 per cent of the output at cost price. "No other oil man can say he has the Pentagon on his side," a US official was quoted as telling the portal Axios.

Betancourt's emergence as the indispensable intermediary has been explained in bluntly realpolitik terms by senior Trump administration figures. "We have to make decisions like this all the time all over the world. Geopolitics is frequently not about choosing between the ideal and the imperfect. It is often about deciding what the best outcome is, and you have to work with what you have," one senior official told reporters. The same official was reported by Axios as saying that without Betancourt there would have been no energy security agreement at all, and that Maduro might still be in power "if it were not for him".

Role in Maduro's removal

American press accounts now describe Betancourt as having played a crucial part in the sequence of events culminating in the capture of Nicolás Maduro on 3 January. According to sources cited by El País with direct knowledge of those conversations, in the hours after Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were removed by special forces, Betancourt helped calm Delcy Rodríguez, who initially believed her superior had been killed. "I do not speak with assassins!" Rodríguez reportedly repeated in a highly agitated state, until several interlocutors — Betancourt among them — persuaded her to speak with Marco Rubio about assuming control. Senior US officials reportedly made clear to Rodríguez during those calls that Betancourt would be the essential intermediary for any matter relating to the oil sector.

It was Rodríguez, now apparently supportive of the Washington arrangement, who had previously offered Betancourt a return to business in Venezuela in 2023, having earlier been on the opposite side: her brother Jorge Rodríguez, in a February 2020 press conference held when he was communications minister, had publicly accused Betancourt of being "the direct financier of Juan Guaidó" and of running a corruption network that channelled funds "to finance terrorist acts" against Venezuela. That Venezuelan case was subsequently shelved in 2023, the same year NABEP was created.

Legal jeopardy in Europe

The investigations in Switzerland and Spain concern alleged irregularities involving more than four billion dollars said to have been diverted from Venezuela's state oil company with the connivance of bribed officials. In Switzerland, where Betancourt is classified as a politically exposed person, the Federal Council ordered a freeze on assets belonging to dozens of individuals with links to Maduro within 48 hours of his capture. According to the NGO Public Eye, which monitors financial opacity in the oil sector, 239 million Swiss francs — roughly 295 million dollars — were frozen belonging to 21 of the 37 people on the list. Public Eye told El País it had been unable to confirm what portion, if any, pertains to Betancourt.

A separate development has drawn particular scrutiny. Switzerland's extradition request to the United Kingdom for Betancourt was revoked in May 2026, on grounds of "particularities of British extradition law", the Zürich public prosecutor's office explained to El País. The investigation itself, however, continues. "That is very unusual, and we hope the Swiss authorities will make a statement explaining that contradiction," a Public Eye spokesman said. The NGO also noted that as early as January 2026, a US embassy staff member had made enquiries about Swiss asset-freezing rules in relation to this matter — further evidence, El País reports, of close American monitoring of Betancourt's legal exposure.

The Washington Post, citing reporting on Trump administration interventions, found that senior figures including Under Secretary of State Christopher Landau and the then Attorney General Pam Bondi had pressed the Swiss authorities in ways that benefited Betancourt. In the United Kingdom, he had been living at two mansions while unable to travel freely, his Italian and Venezuelan passports having been subject to retention as part of the Swiss proceedings. His reappearance in Venezuela, arriving by private jet from the United States in the weeks following the June earthquake, was reported by El País on 16 August.

Business history and disputed reputation

Betancourt grew up in Valencia, some 170 kilometres from Caracas, the son of a musician and a jewellery designer. His entry into the energy sector came through connections formed at the Instituto Cumbres de Caracas, an institution linked to the Legionarios de Cristo, through which he secured his first major contract before the age of 30. His fortune was built largely through energy contracts during the Hugo Chávez era, most notably during the electricity crisis of 2009, when he acquired several power plants — described at the time as second-hand — which critics said did little to resolve the problem. Jorge Rodríguez, in that same 2020 press conference, alleged that Betancourt used profits from those contracts to purchase factories, industrial assets, and luxury properties in Florida and Spain. He is also reported to own a castle in Toledo.

His relationship with American authorities dates to the first Trump administration, when Washington declared Maduro illegitimate and recognised Guaidó in 2019. Betancourt reportedly acted as a liaison between the Venezuelan opposition and senior military figures to build internal support for a peaceful transition, and — according to Axios — travelled to Moscow to deliver a letter from Guaidó's circle requesting that Russia withdraw its backing for Maduro. That effort failed; Maduro survived, and Betancourt's assets in Venezuela, including his stake in the oil company Petrozamora, were confiscated.

When NABEP's previous minority shareholder, Florida-based oil magnate and Republican donor Harry Sargeant III — a figure reportedly close enough to Maduro to have earned the nickname "El Abuelo" — moved to exit, the circumstances were contested. In August, the US Treasury froze the assets of his Venezuelan operating entity, and sources with knowledge of the matter told El País that Sargeant received pressure from multiple directions, including pressure from Venezuela directed at people in his circle. He ultimately sold his stake for 300 million dollars to an entity affiliated with Betancourt, leaving Betancourt as sole shareholder of a company producing approximately 200,000 barrels per day.

Betancourt has consistently denied any wrongdoing, a position maintained through his legal representation — which, El País notes, has included Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's personal attorney. His profile generates strong antipathy across Venezuela's political spectrum, from Chavistas to supporters of opposition figure María Corina Machado. He has, according to El País, sought to counter this through numerous websites promoting his business record and an organised network of social media accounts that respond to critical posts with supportive messages.