The Venezuela oil deal taking shape between the United States government and North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) has handed a pivotal role to Alejandro Betancourt, a Venezuelan businessman currently facing active legal proceedings in Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and whose previous business dealings attracted scrutiny from federal prosecutors in the United States.
Under the terms first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. government will take a 35 percent passive stake in NABEP, the company of which Betancourt is majority shareholder, according to El País. NABEP would gain the right to develop 17 oil fields estimated to hold 65 billion barrels, roughly one-fifth of Venezuela’s total reserves. The U.S. government would receive preferential rights to purchase 20 per cent of output at cost, with the State Department holding first refusal on the remaining 80 per cent.
A Pentagon spokesman told Reuters that the office structuring the deal lacks authority to take equity. The arrangement emerged after major American oil companies declined to commit capital to a country still burdened by political risk and an uncertain legal framework.
The Venezuela Oil Deal and How NABEP Emerged
NABEP’s roots trace back to Petrozamora, a producer partnered with Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. Betancourt entered the oil sector before turning 30, the son of a musician and a jewellery designer, and built his influence through the generation Venezuelans call the bolichicos: young men from established Caracas families who accumulated wealth during Hugo Chávez’s government.
His earlier company, Derwick Associates, co-founded with his cousin Pedro Trebbau, had no prior record of building power plants when it won government contracts during Venezuela’s electricity emergency declared in 2010. Derwick received contracts worth approximately $5 billion to construct power plants, awarded without competitive bidding, according to Reuters and the BBC. (Sources conflict on the precise contract count: the BBC reports 12; the snippet and El País state at least 11.) In 2018, Transparencia Venezuela estimated those projects should have cost $2.1 billion. Betancourt and Derwick disputed those figures and denied wrongdoing.
In 2018, the U.S. Justice Department charged a senior Derwick executive in an alleged $1.2 billion bribery and money-laundering scheme. Betancourt, who was in his twenties when he co-founded Derwick, was cited in the criminal complaint as an unnamed co-conspirator, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He was not charged: prosecutors could not establish that he and Derwick knowingly received tainted funds, and he had not moved money into U.S. banks or real estate, as others involved had done, according to the Miami Herald.
A separate federal investigation in Florida centred on allegations that Betancourt was involved in embezzling over $1 billion from PDVSA and laundering proceeds through real estate in Miami and bank accounts in Malta and Switzerland. U.S. prosecutors paused that inquiry earlier in 2026; two sources told Reuters that supervisors subsequently discouraged investigators from pursuing the matter further.
Arrests, Frozen Assets, and a Renewed Spanish Case
The legal exposure extends well beyond the United States. Judicial authorities in Spain, Switzerland, Andorra, and the U.S. have all opened proceedings against Betancourt and other bolichicos for alleged involvement in corruption schemes connected to PDVSA, according to the BBC.
Swiss prosecutors froze his assets, issued an international arrest warrant, and confiscated his Italian and Venezuelan passports. In November 2025, London police arrested him and he was required to post a $2.5 million bond while awaiting an extradition hearing. He was detained twice by British police during 2025, according to the BBC. Switzerland is seeking to prosecute him for allegedly laundering money between October 2010 and January 2018, according to Lexology reporting on the UK extradition proceedings. Spanish authorities also raided Alamín Castle, a palatial estate he owned in the province of Toledo, in a search linked to the Swiss investigation.
In June 2026, the Spanish National High Court reopened its case against Betancourt for alleged money laundering and tax fraud, having archived it months earlier. He is accused, along with partners, of bribing three PDVSA officials with $42 million to defraud $4.85 billion through currency exchange operations channelled via oil transactions, according to El País. Betancourt has not been formally charged in Spain, Switzerland, or the United States, and he denies wrongdoing.
Senior U.S. officials, including Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, and then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, have spoken with Swiss officials since January 2026 about their investigation into Betancourt, or negotiated with them to drop an extradition request. In May 2026, Switzerland withdrew its British extradition request but extended an international warrant and asked the Justice Department to arrest Betancourt if he entered the United States. The department did not act. Swiss proceedings remain active.
Betancourt’s advisory role, according to El País, now extends beyond oil: sources close to Caracas power circles say he is also counselling President Delcy Rodríguez on Venezuela’s mining sector and debt restructuring. Venezuela’s new mining law has opened gold and strategic minerals to private and foreign investors, but the state retains broad discretion over concessions lasting up to 50 years, and much of the gold in the states of Bolívar and Amazonas originates from informal mines controlled by armed groups and military-linked networks.
Whether the Pentagon ultimately holds the equity stake in NABEP, or another U.S. government body does, the Venezuela oil deal has already answered one question about post-Maduro reconstruction: access is still the currency of power in Caracas, and Betancourt holds a great deal of it. Spain’s National High Court is scheduled to advance its proceedings; the outcome there may be the most significant legal test of his position yet.
