Alejandro Betancourt's name is familiar to many Venezuelans, as he is linked to several business controversies that have occurred over the last 15 years — Photo: Daniel Arce López/BBC
The controversy surrounding the oil pact with Venezuela announced by American President Donald Trump on Friday (28/8) only increases as new details emerge.
Trump called the deal "the biggest in history."
In addition to all the doubts about the legality of the transfer to the United States of majority control of 17 deposits, which house 21.5% of Venezuela's proven oil reserves (equivalent to around 65 billion barrels), there is now the surprise generated by the company that will be in charge of their exploration.
Against everything that could be expected in an operation of this scale, the list of participants does not include giants in the sector, such as ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips or BP.
In its place is the company North American Blue Energy Partners (Nabep), registered in Barbados.
There is little public information about the company, which is not present in other oil markets. But what caught the most attention was the name of its director.
Alejandro Betancourt López is a Venezuelan businessman. His million-dollar deals with the country's government, since the times of former president Hugo Chávez (1954-2013), generated headlines and judicial investigations in at least five countries over the last 15 years.
"Venezuela has enormous natural resources, a hard-working people and unexplored potential", declared Betancourt in the statement confirming his company's participation in the agreement.
"This transaction will unlock that potential, to the great benefit of Venezuelans and Americans," he continued.
In the statement, Betancourt also announced that the United States government will hold 35% of Nabep's shares.
On the other hand, Washington defends the chosen partner, stating that he has already proven to be trustworthy.
"Nicolás Maduro would have remained in power if it weren't for him", declared an American official on condition of anonymity to the journalistic portal Axios.
Betancourt and his associates obtained million-dollar contracts during the electricity crisis experienced by Venezuela in 2009 — Photo: PEDRO RANCES MATTEY/AFP via Getty Images (BBC)
In a press conference at the Miraflores Palace (seat of the Venezuelan government), the United States Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, defended the choice of Betancourt as a partner for the agreement.
He highlighted that it is currently the second largest private oil producer in Venezuela, behind only Chevron.
"In business, when you choose a partner, it's not about someone who says what's right, but rather someone who has demonstrated their ability to deliver results," according to Wright.
"Nabep has demonstrated a highly successful track record in producing large volumes of oil in Venezuela."
The country's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, stated that Betancourt's company "produced in Venezuela, even with very strict sanctions" and highlighted the fact that the United States associate is Venezuelan.
Regarding the corruption accusations against the businessman, Rodríguez highlighted that, "in Venezuela, he was acquitted years ago" and that "there is no prosecution in the United States".
"Often, a person is judged in the press before the courts", concluded the president.
The training
Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López was born in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in February 1980, into a middle-class family.
He is an economist trained at the University of Suffolk, in the American state of Massachusetts, according to the profile published on the O'Hara Financial fund page. The fund was created by him to manage his fortune, estimated by international press organizations at around US$2.6 billion (around R$13.3 billion).
In his CV, Betancourt attributes his success to his "entrepreneurial spirit". But Venezuelan journalists who have followed his steps for years claim that it all started with his connections established in classes at the Instituto Cumbres de Caracas, a private religious school, located in the east zone of the Venezuelan capital.
"He studied with some of his future partners, especially with Javier Alvarado Pardi, whose father would become president of the company Eletricidade de Caracas, deputy minister of Energy and director of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), during the Chávez government", explains to BBC News Mundo (the BBC's Spanish service) Venezuelan researcher Alek Boyd, who has been following his steps since 2011.
"In 2009, in the middle of the electricity crisis, Alvarado introduced Betancourt and his partners to his father, ensuring that they could solve the problem. And he received 12 million-dollar contracts, even though he had no experience in the electricity sector", highlights the communicator, resident in London.
The engineering company Derwick Associates, founded by Betancourt and one of his cousins, received without bidding, between 2009 and 2011, 12 contracts from the Venezuelan government to build 11 new electrical plants and one to modify an existing plant, for the amount of US$5 billion (around R$25.7 billion).
Electrical engineering company Derwick Associates, founded by Betancourt, received contracts to build 11 new power plants — Photo: Gerard SIOEN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images (BBC)
Shortly afterwards, the nickname that would be given to him and his associates in the country would emerge.
"In 2011, the economic journalist Juan Carlos Zapata wrote a column talking about certain young people who, at that time, were reaching 30 years of age and were doing big business with the so-called Bolivarian government. He called them bolichicos", recalls to the BBC César Batiz, director of the Venezuelan portal El Pitazo, who also investigated the activities of Betancourt and his associates.
The term is a portmanteau of the words "bolivarian" and chicos (young people).
Betancourt's lawyer rejects the designation.
"It's a term created by the press and used to designate a group of young people, whose only point in common is that they have achieved success," the businessman's representative in the United States, Jon Sale, told BBC News Mundo.
"Before he started ganging up with the bolichicos, he was already rich and came from a family with roots in Venezuela", adds the lawyer.
He alludes to the supposed connections between the Betancourt family and Hermógenes López (1830-1898), who was acting president of Venezuela between 1887 and 1888.
But, after the nickname was created, questions began.
Derwick guarantees to have carried out all the electrification works that were contracted. But organizations specializing in the fight against corruption, such as Transparency Venezuela and the Organized Crime and Corruption Information Project (OCCRP), argue that several of the projects were not completed, or were carried out incorrectly.
This would explain why the country continues to suffer constant electrical blackouts to this day.
It should be added that, in a report published in 2018, Transparency Venezuela revealed that 11 of the projects commissioned from Derwick should have cost US$2.1 billion (around R$10.8 billion). In other words, the Venezuelan government would have paid 138% more than the initial price.
Bolichicos emerged when Hugo Chávez was president and Rafael Ramírez (left) was Minister of Energy and president of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) — Photo: THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images (BBC)
The growth of the empire and its problems
Despite criticism of his performance in the electricity sector, Venezuelan authorities allowed Derwick to foray into the oil sector through Petrozamora, a strategic association for oil extraction in Lake Maracaibo, in the northwest of the country. Russian companies participated in it, alongside PDVSA.
But Betancourt's commercial activities were not restricted exclusively to Venezuela.
In the middle of the last decade, he began his internationalization process by acquiring a stake in the Spanish sunglasses company Hawkers. He became president and majority partner of the company in 2016.
At the same time, Betancourt also purchased banking entities in Switzerland and on the African continent.
Currently, Betancourt's business conglomerate brings together fifty companies in 16 countries, according to investigations by Transparency Venezuela.
He chose to maintain a low profile, avoiding social media and giving few press interviews during his international expansion. But, at the same time, suspicions about his business also increased.
Despite questions about his performance in the electrical sector, Betancourt obtained permission from the Venezuelan authorities to enter the oil sector — Photo: Maryorin Mendez/AFP via Getty Images (BBC)
In 2013, former United States ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich filed a lawsuit in American court against Betancourt and two of his partners for "paying large sums to [Venezuelan] public officials in exchange for the award of contracts."
The diplomat's action was rejected five years later, but the decision did not put an end to the businessman's legal problems.
At the end of the last decade, judicial authorities in Spain, Switzerland, Andorra and the United States opened several investigations against Betancourt and other bolichicos, for their alleged participation in different corruption plots related to PDVSA.
In 2025, the businessman once again made headlines when he was detained on two occasions by British police in London, where he had settled in recent years.
A few days later, Spanish authorities executed a search and seizure warrant at Alamín Castle, located in the province of Toledo, central Spain. Betancourt had acquired the castle years before the operation.
The two actions took place within the scope of an investigation into alleged money laundering, promoted by the Swiss prosecutor's office.
Regarding them, Betancourt's lawyer hinted that they were fabricated actions.
"This is a group of very successful young businesspeople [...]. Some broke the law and others didn't, but they put everyone in the same bag", according to him.
The huge Betancourt property in the Spanish province of Toledo was the target of a search and seizure warrant from the Swiss judicial authorities, carried out by the Spanish police — Photo: Javier Digo/Reuters
Washington's motives
But why did the United States choose as a partner someone who arouses this type of suspicion and accusations?
In an interview with Venezuelan journalist Sergio Novelli, American Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered three reasons.
"It has a history of being able to produce oil," he argued, firstly.
Experts say that Nabep currently extracts around 180,000 barrels of oil, below Chevron's more than 200,000. But others say we need to examine these numbers carefully.
"He managed to increase production in Petrozamora [on Lake Maracaibo], but the truth is that he added up all the wells he now controls to say: Look how much I'm producing", says an expert on the subject, who asked to remain anonymous.
Rubio went on to highlight that "there was no investigation against him in our system."
Betancourt's lawyer confirms this statement and highlights that "the United States government, through the Department of Justice, investigated thoroughly and never brought charges."
In fact, Betancourt was not formally charged in the United States. But there are reports indicating that he is mentioned in investigations related to Operation Money Flight, a scheme that led to the embezzlement of around US$1.2 billion (around R$6.2 billion) from PDVSA, between 2014 and 2018.
In this case, his cousin Francisco Convit appears as an accused. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison last year.
Finally, Rubio's third reason: "He is an individual who supported the opposition a lot, for example, during the time of Juan Guaidó [...] and felt very bad with Nicolás Maduro."
The American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, defended the association with Betancourt, stating that he has no ongoing legal proceedings in the United States, although there are lawsuits in other countries — Photo: AFP via Getty Images (BBC)
Unlike other people who prospered economically in the shadow of Chavismo, Betancourt and his associates apparently do not identify ideologically with the movement led by Hugo Chávez.
"They simply saw a business opportunity and took advantage," according to Batiz.
"He invited Guaidó's brother, Gustavo, to his castle in Spain," explains Boyd.
"And, thanks to these connections during Donald Trump's first term, he became close to American officials, such as Mauricio Claver-Carone, or personalities close to Trump, such as Rudy Giuliani", former mayor of New York.
"He got involved with the failed movement to depose Maduro, on April 30, 2019", highlights the journalist. "For this reason, Maduro ordered reprisals against him, removed him from the oil business and forced him to remain between Madrid and London."
In 2022, Betancourt's protection in Venezuela was dissolved, when the then Minister of Oil, Tareck El Aissami, accused him of participating in a plot that took US$4 billion (around R$20.5 billion) from the state oil company.
But his accuser was the one who ended up being arrested months later, for alleged acts of corruption.
Several press organizations indicate that Donald Trump's former advisor and former president of the IDB, Mauricio Claver-Carone, became Betancourt's main supporter in Washington — Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images (BBC)
Right place and time
The contacts established by Alejandro Betancourt with the United States would have been fundamental in reducing the judicial pressure imposed against him by the Swiss and Spanish authorities, from the end of 2025.
"The case was rejected," the Westminster courts confirmed to the BBC.
"Switzerland did not present the evidence requested by the English judges to support its extradition request and, therefore, the ban [on leaving the country] was lifted," explained Betancourt's lawyer. But he recognizes that the decision does not represent the end of investigations in the Alpine country.
Betancourt's supposed contribution as a link between Washington and Caracas would have earned him more points with the White House.
According to the Axios portal, in the first minutes after the military operation that culminated in the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, the businessman spoke with then vice-president Delcy Rodríguez and convinced her to talk to Marco Rubio.
His lawyer confirmed this version.
"He acted as an intermediary. He had nothing to do with Maduro's departure, but, as he had everyone's trust, he became an intermediary", according to Jon Sale.
