US Officials Lobbied Swiss Prosecutors to Ease Off Venezuelan Oil Fixer Alejandro Betancourt, Washington Post Reports

Since Nicolás Maduro's removal in January, Washington has been rebuilding Venezuela's oil sector through a small circle of intermediaries. The man at the center of that effort, Alejandro Betancourt, is now the subject of a Washington Post report alleging senior U.S. officials intervened on his behalf in an active Swiss criminal investigation.

According to the Washington Post, citing two people familiar with the matter, U.S. officials lobbied Swiss authorities to resolve a money-laundering case against Betancourt in a way that would avoid criminal charges and lift travel restrictions on him. Swiss prosecutors had asked the U.S. Justice Department to arrest Betancourt under an existing Swiss warrant. The Post reports Washington has not acted on that warrant. Instead, Betancourt has been given a multi-entry visa and has traveled into the United States repeatedly for meetings with the Trump administration, according to people familiar with his travel cited by the Post.

Betancourt, 46, has been investigated in Switzerland, Spain, and the United States over the past decade on allegations including money laundering. U.S. prosecutors have said he may have played a role in a loan arrangement that embezzled more than $1 billion from Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, according to the Post's reporting. A separate investigation published by the Sunday Times of London, and cited by Yahoo News, reported that Spanish authorities are examining a $4.3 billion money-laundering and tax-evasion scheme tied to Betancourt, while Zurich prosecutors have separately looked into whether Venezuelan public funds moved through European banks.

Betancourt has denied wrongdoing and has never been convicted of a crime. He maintains his business dealings have been legitimate. Everything reported here represents allegation and open investigation, not a verdict. No U.S. charges have been filed against him, and the Swiss case, per the Post, remains unresolved rather than closed.

How he got the job

The Sunday Times reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio picked Betancourt to serve as the primary go-between linking the Trump administration with Venezuela's interim government under President Delcy Rodríguez, according to Yahoo News' summary of that investigation. Sources told the Sunday Times that Betancourt has styled himself as Venezuela's new "oil tsar," helping steer negotiations and restart oil production.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, described by Yahoo News as an adviser to Rubio on Venezuela, told Reuters that U.S. officials turned to Betancourt because he understands the oil business on both sides of the relationship. Bloomberg reported separately that Claver-Carone helped assemble much of the team executing the administration's Venezuela strategy, Betancourt included.

Betancourt's business history explains why his current role draws scrutiny. He co-founded Derwick Associates, which won roughly $5 billion in no-bid Venezuelan power contracts despite having no prior experience in the sector, according to Yahoo News. Transparency International has estimated Derwick overbilled Venezuela by $2.9 billion; Derwick has disputed that figure.

Critics now say a similarly opaque process is unfolding around Venezuela's oil fields. Bloomberg reported that, absent competitive bidding, Betancourt has significant sway over which companies land contracts. Preliminary deals reportedly worth billions have gone to firms with thin track records, including Miami-based Lionheart Capital and California-based Pacific Coast Energy Co. Bloomberg described PCEC as a "little-known" company that recently signed agreements covering Lake Maracaibo and the Orinoco Belt; its investors are not publicly disclosed, though the company says it has bank and trading-house financing.

Reporting from Axios, flagged Thursday on Bluesky by journalist Marcy Wheeler, describes the administration nearing what Wheeler characterized as a massive Venezuela oil arrangement. Wheeler's post also referenced earlier Washington Post reporting describing the negotiations as involving a "suspected money launderer." Those characterizations are Wheeler's framing of the underlying reporting, not independently confirmed allegations beyond what the Post and Sunday Times have laid out about Betancourt's legal history.

No U.S. investigation or charge has been announced against Betancourt domestically. The Swiss warrant, per the Post's sourcing, remains outstanding and unenforced by U.S. authorities despite the request from Swiss prosecutors. Whether that reflects a deliberate policy choice to protect a useful intermediary, ordinary diplomatic discretion in a fragile post-Maduro transition, or something else is not established by any source here. It remains an open question.

The State Department has not issued an on-record response addressed in these reports, and Betancourt's camp maintains his conduct has been lawful. The practical question for Congress or independent watchdogs is whether a no-bid contracting pattern around Venezuelan oil, run through a central broker with three open foreign investigations, gets independent oversight before the deals Bloomberg describes are finalized.