Trump administration quietly closes criminal probe into Venezuela businessman amid oil deal

Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters/File

For a decade, Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt has been ensnared in the tentacles of a sprawling Justice Department probe into a sophisticated billion-dollar money laundering scheme that US prosecutors allege embezzled funds from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company known as PDVSA.

In recent months, federal prosecutors in Miami closed the Betancourt investigation on orders from the office of then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, they were told, according to two people briefed on the matter. The move came as part of an effort by Trump White House officials and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to enlist Betancourt to engineer a massive new oil deal with Venezuela’s government, the people briefed on the matter said.

After years of failing to persuade prosecutors in the US, Spain and Switzerland to move on from their criminal investigations into him, Betancourt’s biggest break came after the US military in January snatched Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from his home in Caracas and brought him to New York to face narco-trafficking charges. Within hours, Betancourt’s phone rang and administration officials sought his help to begin discussions with officials in Maduro’s government who remain in charge, led by his vice president Delcy Rodríguez, according to multiple people familiar with the oil deal.

And within weeks, the beginnings of a plan of a US plan for Venezuela’s oil industry began taking shape. President Donald Trump announced the venture in recent days, with the company led by Betancourt as a partner to the Pentagon in a plan that Trump says will secure US control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves.

Arrested in London last year on a Swiss warrant, Betancourt as recently as January was listed in a Swiss government order that froze the assets of 37 people, including Maduro and people associated with him, that Swiss authorities said was to ensure that “any illicitly acquired assets cannot be transferred out of Switzerland” in the wake of Maduro’s arrest.

A Justice Department spokesperson disputed that Blanche personally intervened in the case.

“This is a complete fabrication. Todd Blanche has never spoken about this case, or whether there even is a case, with anyone in SDFL” a Justice Department spokesperson said. “He has also never told them to close any case, ever.”

Betancourt for years built a lucrative oil business with contracts with the the Venezualan government, first under Hugo Chavez and then Maduro — the source of allegations that he was part of a network of wealthy Venezuelans, known colloquially as Boliburgueses or Bolichicos. The US alleges this network helped Maduro and his cronies steal millions of dollars in Venezuela’s oil wealth and launder it through real estate deals in Miami and in bank accounts in Malta and Switzerland.

Betancourt was never charged with a crime. But he was an unnamed co-conspirator in some of the transactions that became the basis for charges against one of his cousins, who was a partner in a business of Betancourt’s.

Ten people were indicted in the yearslong investigation.

The El Nuevo Herald/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

Jon Sale, Betancourt’s attorney, says Betancourt didn’t break any US laws and that’s the reason prosecutors never charged him. Prosecutors focused on transactions that involved Betancourt and others and that the government alleged came from bribery proceeds, but Betancourt wasn’t aware of the provenance of the money, Sale told CNN in a telephone interview.

“He didn’t commit any criminal activity,” Sale told CNN. “He was involved in some transactions because he did business with his cousins. There’s no evidence he knew the money came from bribery, or had anything to do with PDVSA,” the acronym for the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. Despite the long-running probe, Betancourt has become the lynchpin to Trump’s efforts to take a massive stake in Venezuela’s oil industry, a deal engineered with the current Venezuelan regime led by Rodriguez, who leads a government with many of the same officials the US accused of corruption.

Rubio and Trump administration officials have defended working with Betancourt despite the allegations of helping the Maduro regime launder millions stolen from Venezuela.

“We vetted him through our system,” a senior US official said on a White House call Tuesday with reporters. “There are no charges he’s facing in the United States for violation of any of our laws. And in fact, many of the European investigations on him were triggered by some allegations that were made by the United States.”

Rubio in an interview with Venezuelan broadcaster Sergio Novelli took credit for helping engineer the arrangement with Betancourt, defending him as someone with a proven record operating in Venezuela.

“We thoroughly investigate what we know within our system,” Rubio said. “Obviously, if these individuals were under investigation in the United States, and we have checked that with all the authorities, there was no investigation within our system against him.”

Rubio, in the interview, didn’t say that he played a key role in why Betancourt is no longer under investigation. Rubio and White House officials pressed Justice Department officials, first under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and more recently with Blanche, now attorney general, to clear the way for Betancourt to work with the US on the oil deal, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Blanche’s involvement took place when he was deputy attorney general, including while Bondi still Attorney General.

Ending the US probe was one step; another was Blanche reaching out to Swiss authorities to seek their cooperation and drop warrants that prevented Betancourt from traveling given his bail conditions that restricted him to the UK. The State Department provided Betancourt with visas to enter the US multiple times as the oil deal took shape, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The State Department declined to comment other than to refer to comments in recent days from Rubio and administration officials.

“President Trump secured the largest oil deal in world history — one that will greatly benefit both the United States and Venezuela for years to come. This historic deal marks a major step toward stabilizing Venezuela’s economy after years of hyperinflation and almost no new investment, while more than doubling the United States’ oil reserves,” a White House official told CNN. “Less than one year ago, Venezuela was held hostage by a dangerous narco-terrorist who exploited Venezuela’s vast resources to enrich his friends and America’s adversaries. Today, Venezuela is on a path back to prosperity, working with the United States and American companies that are making unprecedented investments in its oil industry.”

The oil deal appears similar to one that dates back at least to Trump’s first term.

Rudy Giuliani, Betancourt’s attorney at the time and later Trump’s lawyer, sought to sell the deal to the administration in 2019, according to Lev Parnas, a former Giuliani associate who says he was working on the proposed deal him. Parnas separately was later charged by US prosecutors and convicted of campaign finance charges.

Giuliani worked to sell the oil deal, while lobbying the administration to drop the charges against Betancourt and separately also working to lobby Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden, according to a person familiar.

All those business activities came coincided in late 2019.

On a trip to Betancourt’s castle estate in Spain, Giuliani worked to set up meetings on Betancourt’s case. He also separately held a meeting in Madrid with Andriy Yermak, an aide close to Volodymyr Zelensky at the time, seeking to start a Biden probe. Trump weeks earlier had personally asked, in a now infamous call, the Ukrainian leader to announce they were investigating the Bidens in a corruption probe.

The oil deal idea then was for Giuliani to work with US officials on a similar deal with Maduro, according to Parnas. Some of Betancourt’s business partners were involved, Parnas says. The eventual plan was for Maduro to leave office peacefully and allow for a transition in Venezuela.

The proposal never got off the ground then, in part because the Trump administration officials were working to try to undermine Maduro with support for opposition leader Juan Guaidó. Betancourt was a major funder of Guaido’s opposition work, according to Trump administration officials and Sale, Betancourt’s lawyer.

Sale denies that Betancourt was involved in any possible deals that Giuliani was pitching with Maduro at the time.

A spokesperson for Giuliani didn’t immediately comment for this story.

In 2018, Betancourt was among a dozen people involved in what a US Homeland Security Investigations affidavit labeled Operation Money Flight.

In the affidavit, which was filed in federal court in Miami, an HSI agent said the operation “revealed an international conspiracy to launder the PDVSA funds through Miami and several large-scale, international third-party money-laundering organizations. More specifically, the investigation revealed the use of Miami real estate and sophisticated false-investment schemes to launder hundreds of millions of U.S. Dollars.”

Betancourt’s alleged role appears limited in the court documents filed in the indictments against a group of businessmen and former PDVSA officials allegedly involved.

He isn’t named in documents but people briefed on the matter told CNN he is listed as a co-conspirator in at least one transaction that was part of the charges.

Rubio acknowledged that Betancourt’s legal issues raises perception problems. But he defended Betancourt’s bonafides as an opposition supporter.

In his interview this week with the program “Al Dia con Sergio Novelli,” Rubio said that during the Trump first term in 2019, “this was an individual who ended up in a very, very bad place with Maduro. Because it became known that he was supporting elements of the opposition back in 2019, which even created problems for him with Maduro.”

“But now we have an opportunity to do something that I believe is going to benefit everyone,” he added. “But specifically, in the long term, benefit the Venezuelan people.”

莱昂纳多·费尔南德斯·维洛里亚/路透社/文件

十年来，委内瑞拉商人亚历杭德罗·贝坦科特一直深陷美国司法部一项庞大的调查之中，该调查涉及一项复杂的数十亿美元洗钱计划，美国检察官指控该计划挪用了委内瑞拉国有石油公司PDVSA的资金。

据两位知情人士透露，近几个月来，迈阿密的联邦检察官奉时任副司法部长托德·布兰奇的命令，结束了对贝坦科特的调查。知情人士称，此举是特朗普白宫官员和国务卿马可·卢比奥试图拉拢贝坦科特，促成与委内瑞拉政府达成一项新的巨额石油交易的一部分。

多年来，贝坦库尔一直未能说服美国、西班牙和瑞士的检察官停止对他的刑事调查。今年1月，美国军方从委内瑞拉首都加拉加斯的家中逮捕了委内瑞拉领导人尼古拉斯·马杜罗，并将其带到纽约，面临贩毒指控。此后，贝坦库尔迎来了最大的转机。据多位知情人士透露，几个小时后，贝坦库尔的电话就响了，美国政府官员寻求他的帮助，希望他能与马杜罗政府中仍掌权的官员展开对话，这些官员由副总统德尔西·罗德里格斯领导。

几周之内，美国一项旨在控制委内瑞拉石油行业的计划初见雏形。近日，唐纳德·特朗普总统宣布了这项计划，由贝坦科特领导的公司将与五角大楼合作，特朗普称该计划将确保美国控制委内瑞拉650亿桶石油储备。

贝坦库尔去年在伦敦因瑞士逮捕令被捕。就在今年1月，瑞士政府下令冻结了包括马杜罗及其相关人员在内的37人的资产，瑞士当局称此举是为了确保在马杜罗被捕后，“任何非法获得的资产都不会被转移出瑞士”。

司法部发言人否认布兰奇曾亲自干预此案。

“这完全是捏造的。托德·布兰奇从未与圣地亚哥-德州自由州议会的任何人谈论过此案，甚至从未提及过此案是否存在，”司法部发言人表示。“他也从未指示他们结案。”

贝坦库尔多年来与委内瑞拉政府签订合同，建立了一个利润丰厚的石油帝国，这些合同最初由乌戈·查韦斯执政，后来由马杜罗执政——这也引发了人们对他参与一个由委内瑞拉富豪组成的网络的指控，该网络俗称“玻利布尔格人”或“玻利奇科人”。美国指控该网络帮助马杜罗及其亲信窃取了委内瑞拉数百万美元的石油财富，并通过在迈阿密的房地产交易以及在马耳他和瑞士的银行账户进行洗钱。

贝坦库尔从未被指控犯罪。但他是某些交易的未具名同谋，这些交易成为指控其一位表亲的依据，而这位表亲是贝坦库尔一家公司的合伙人。

经过数年的调查，共有十人被起诉。

《新先驱报》/《迈阿密先驱报》/论坛新闻社/盖蒂图片社

贝坦库尔的律师乔恩·萨勒表示，贝坦库尔没有违反任何美国法律，这也是检方从未对他提起诉讼的原因。萨勒在接受CNN电话采访时说，检方重点调查了贝坦库尔和其他人参与的交易，政府指控这些交易的资金来源于贿赂所得，但贝坦库尔并不知情。

“他没有犯任何罪，”萨勒告诉CNN。“他参与了一些交易，因为他和他的堂兄弟有生意往来。没有证据表明他知道这些钱来自贿赂，或者与委内瑞拉国家石油公司（PDVSA）有任何关系。”尽管调查持续了很长时间，贝坦科特已成为特朗普试图大规模收购委内瑞拉石油行业股份的关键人物。这项交易是与现任委内瑞拉政府领导人罗德里格斯共同促成的，而罗德里格斯领导的政府中，许多官员正是美国指控腐败的同一批人。

尽管有指控称贝当古帮助马杜罗政权洗钱，挪用了从委内瑞拉窃取的数百万美元，但鲁比奥和特朗普政府官员仍然为与贝当古合作辩护。

一位美国高级官员周二在白宫与记者的电话会议上表示：“我们已经通过我们的系统对他进行了审查。他在美国没有因违反任何法律而面临指控。事实上，欧洲对他展开的许多调查都是由美国提出的一些指控引发的。”

鲁比奥在接受委内瑞拉广播员塞尔吉奥·诺维利采访时，声称自己帮助促成了与贝坦库尔的合作，并称赞贝坦库尔在委内瑞拉拥有良好的从业记录。

鲁比奥说：“我们会彻底调查我们系统内掌握的信息。显然，如果这些人在美国受到调查，我们也已经向所有相关部门核实过，但我们的系统内并没有针对他的任何调查。”

鲁比奥在采访中并未提及他在贝坦科特不再受调查一事中扮演了关键角色。据一位知情人士透露，鲁比奥和白宫官员曾向司法部官员施压，先是向时任司法部长帕姆·邦迪施压，最近又向现任司法部长布兰奇施压，要求他们为贝坦科特与美国就石油交易进行合作扫清障碍。

布兰奇参与其中时，他还是副司法部长，包括邦迪担任司法部长期间。

结束美国调查是第一步；另一步是布兰奇联系瑞士当局，寻求他们的合作，并撤销此前因贝当古保释条件限制其在英国境内活动而对其发出的旅行禁令。据一位知情人士透露，随着石油交易的推进，美国国务院多次向贝当古发放签证，允许其入境美国。

国务院拒绝置评，仅提及卢比奥和政府官员近日发表的评论。

一位白宫官员告诉CNN：“特朗普总统促成了世界历史上规模最大的石油交易——这项交易将在未来数年内极大地惠及美国和委内瑞拉。这项历史性协议标志着委内瑞拉在经历了多年的恶性通货膨胀和几乎没有新投资之后，朝着稳定其经济迈出了重要一步，同时也使美国的石油储备增加了一倍多。” 他还表示：“不到一年前，委内瑞拉还被一名危险的毒品恐怖分子挟持，该恐怖分子利用委内瑞拉丰富的资源来中饱私囊，使其盟友和美国的对手获利。如今，委内瑞拉正走上重回繁荣的道路，与美国以及正在对其石油行业进行前所未有的投资的美国公司携手合作。”

这项石油交易似乎与至少可以追溯到特朗普第一任期的一项交易类似。

据鲁迪·朱利安尼的前助手列夫·帕纳斯透露，朱利安尼当时是贝坦科特的律师，后来成为特朗普的律师，他曾试图在2019年将这笔交易卖给特朗普政府。帕纳斯称，他当时正在为朱利安尼处理这笔交易。帕纳斯后来因违反竞选财务法而被美国检方起诉并定罪。

据一位知情人士透露，朱利安尼一边努力促成这笔石油交易，一边游说政府撤销对贝坦库尔的指控，同时还游说乌克兰官员调查乔·拜登。

所有这些商业活动都集中在 2019 年末。

在前往西班牙贝当古城堡庄园的旅途中，朱利安尼努力安排与贝当古案件相关的会面。他还单独在马德里会见了当时与泽连斯基关系密切的助手安德烈·叶尔马克，试图启动对拜登的调查。几周前，特朗普曾在一次如今臭名昭著的电话中亲自要求乌克兰领导人宣布，他们正在对拜登父子展开腐败调查。

帕纳斯称，当时的石油交易方案是让朱利安尼与美国官员合作，与马杜罗达成类似的协议。帕纳斯还表示，贝坦库尔的一些商业伙伴也参与其中。最终的计划是让马杜罗和平下台，为委内瑞拉的权力过渡铺平道路。

当时这项提议最终未能实施，部分原因是特朗普政府官员正试图通过支持反对派领导人胡安·瓜伊多来削弱马杜罗的统治。据特朗普政府官员和贝坦库尔的律师萨勒称，贝坦库尔是瓜伊多反对派活动的主要资助者。

Sale否认Betancourt参与了当时Giuliani向Maduro提出的任何可能的交易。

朱利安尼的发言人尚未对此事发表评论。

2018 年，贝坦库尔是参与美国国土安全调查局宣誓书中称为“资金转移行动”的十几人之一。

在提交给迈阿密联邦法院的宣誓书中，一名国土安全调查局（HSI）特工表示，此次行动“揭露了一起通过迈阿密和几个大型国际第三方洗钱组织洗钱委内瑞拉国家石油公司（PDVSA）资金的国际阴谋。更具体地说，调查发现有人利用迈阿密的房地产和复杂的虚假投资计划洗钱数亿美元。”

在针对一群涉案商人和前委内瑞拉国家石油公司官员的起诉书中，法庭文件显示，贝坦库尔的角色似乎有限。

虽然文件中没有他的名字，但知情人士告诉 CNN，他至少在一项指控所涉的交易中被列为同谋。

鲁比奥承认贝当古的法律问题会引发公众认知上的困扰。但他捍卫了贝当古作为反对派支持者的诚意。

鲁比奥本周在接受“Al Dia con Sergio Novelli”节目采访时表示，在特朗普2019年的第一个任期内，“这个人与马杜罗的关系非常糟糕。因为人们发现他在2019年支持反对派的部分成员，这甚至给他带来了与马杜罗之间的矛盾。”

“但现在我们有机会去做一些我认为对所有人都有益的事情，”他补充道，“但具体来说，从长远来看，这将造福委内瑞拉人民。”