Alejandro Betancourt López, the Venezuelan businessman chosen by the Trump administration as a key intermediary in its new oil strategy in Venezuela, made his entrance into the crude sector through a business structure shared with Gazprombank, the Russian state bank sanctioned by Washington in 2024 for financing the war in Ukraine.
The paradox is significant: the White House has justified the oil agreement with Venezuela precisely as a way to reduce the influence of Russia and China in the Caribbean nation, while senior officials in Washington have lauded Betancourt as a "proven operator," capable of quickly ramping up production.
An investigation by ABC conducted by a group of Venezuelan researchers in Washington places a partnership established in the Netherlands, Gazprombank Latin America Ventures, at the center of this relationship, through which the partners of Betancourt and Russian interests were involved in Petrozamora, the joint venture that exploited oil fields alongside PDVSA.
The Venezuelan state retained 60% of that business, while the company linked to the Russian bank obtained 40%, with rights since 2012 over fields in Lake Maracaibo.
The structure dates back to 2011 when Betancourt López and his partners Pedro Trebbau and Francisco Convit founded the company Derwick Oil & Gas in Barbados, which partnered with Gazprombank through that Dutch vehicle.
The documented connections go beyond shared partnerships. In April 2013, Betancourt personally signed a letter ordering the transfer of 12.9 million dollars to Gazprombank Latin America Ventures, and that same month Derwick Oil & Gas agreed to lend an additional 35 million dollars to that same entity, signed by Boris Ivanov, a senior executive of the Russian bank.
Bank documents from the Swiss bank CBH from May 2013 explain the origin of the favor: Betancourt López and his partners had assisted the government of Hugo Chávez during the electrical crisis by bringing large generators to the country, and the government and PDVSA were "very grateful," which is why, as a "gesture of recognition," they allowed him to enter the oil business.
The so-called «Venezuela Leaks», published in 2018, also revealed a curriculum vitae of Betancourt submitted to the bank CBH in which he was listed as «representative of Gazprombank in Latin America» since 2007.
While building those connections with Moscow, Betancourt López was also weaving his network in Washington.
In 2017, her company Hawkers hired Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm where Susie Wiles was working at the time, now the Chief of Staff at the White House. Two years later, she hired Rudy Giuliani, then personal attorney to Donald Trump, to represent her before the Department of Justice.
In 2019, during the Venezuelan crisis, Betancourt López traveled to Moscow to deliver a letter from the opposition of Juan Guaidó asking Russia to stop supporting Nicolás Maduro.
The management failed, and the Venezuelan regime took control of Petrozamora. It regained its interests in 2024, and under its management, production increased from about 20,000 barrels per day to nearly 200,000, which drew Washington's attention.
Your company, North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), now operates fields with estimated reserves of more than 65 billion barrels, according to the U.S. administration.
Betancourt's profile becomes even more complicated due to ongoing judicial investigations in several jurisdictions.
According to a report by El País, the Spanish Police raided his castle in Toledo in August 2025 — valued at over 25 million euros and covering 1,440 hectares — and found five luxury vehicles, 17 undocumented firearms, three silencers, and a residence card from the United Arab Emirates in the businessman’s name.
The Spanish National Court is conducting an investigation into alleged money laundering and tax evasion related to an alleged fraud of 4.35 billion dollars stemming from a loan from PDVSA.
Washington has been unresponsive for months to the Spanish letter rogatory to interrogate five key witnesses who have already been convicted in the United States, which is hindering the case.
Betancourt and his lawyers have repeatedly denied any illegal activity and maintain that his businesses have a legitimate origin.
The judge Santiago Pedraz has warned that if he does not receive a response from Washington by December, he will archive the investigation against the billionaire.
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