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[UPDATED 05/12/2025] - Sources in Spain reported yesterday that Alejandro Betancourt was arrested by British police in London and released on bail. Spain's Audiencia Nacional and Anticorruption Court requested the action for his involvement in money laundering (Operation Money Flight).
Betancourt became known in Venezuela after the company he co-founded, Derwick Associates, bribed authorities to obtain a dozen contracts to provide power plants and solve electricity outages in the country. According to experts, Derwick Associates overcharged the State more than one billion U.S. Dollars. After Derwick, Betancourt went into different deals with Petroleos de Venezuela. One involved an illicit partnership with Gazprom executives to produce oil (Petrozamora). In two others, Betancourt was a key player in multibillion dollar money laundering schemes masked as loans to PDVSA. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Betancourt's partner and Derwick co-founder Francisco Convit for one of the schemes (Operation Money Flight), and all but named Betancourt as conspirator no. 2.
Since, Betancourt has been lobbying and fighting criminal investigations in Venezuela, Spain, Switzerland and the U.S.A. During Donald Trump's first presidency, Rudy Giuliani was retained by Betancourt to seek favour with DoJ, the NSC and Attorney General William Barr.
Beyond Venezuela, Betancourt has used an investment vehicle called O'Hara Financial to launder ill gotten proceeds through a number of ventures in Spain, the UK, Switzerland and beyond.
[UPDATED 05/12/2025] - The DailyMail posted yesterday "EXCLUSIVE - Billionaire wanted in Switzerland over alleged money laundering fights extradition from two luxury homes in UK, including country estate once frequented by Princess Diana":
Venezuelan energy magnate Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt Lopez has been granted the unusual bail condition of being able to travel by private helicopter between his luxury residences in Chelsea and Oxfordshire while he fights legal attempts to make him travel to Switzerland to face alleged money laundering offences.
The main bail address approved by Westminster Magistrates Court is the £24 million six-bedroom contemporary mansion in west London, called Burnsall House.
Described in marketing literature as 'the largest detached home to have been built in Chelsea for almost a decade', it boasts a huge kitchen/dining/living area, sumptuous sitting room and secluded patio garden, as well as a wine cellar and indoor swimming pool.
The alternative bolthole is 14-bedroom Kingstone Lisle Park, a Grade II listed Georgian country house near Wantage which was last sold for £18 million in 2018 prior to extensive renovations.
Set in a private estate with sculptured grounds and a croquet lawn, parts of its interior was once described by Country Life as 'one of the most breath-taking surprises to be found in an English country home'.
Under bail conditions set by the court, Betancourt Lopez, 45 – who has surrendered his Venezuelan and Italian passports - must not apply for any international travel documents or be in possession of any.
But he can live at the two addresses and use London Heliport in Battersea to travel between them.
Betancourt Lopez, who is worth an estimated £2.6 billion, was arrested on November 3 in Charing Cross under an international arrest warrant from Switzerland.
Swiss authorities allege he was involved in money laundering there between October 2010 and January 2018.
He was initially held in custody but released on bail after paying a £2 million security.
The businessman was previously arrested in the Oxford area in September under a European Arrest Warrant issued by Spain – although it is understood this was withdrawn.
A court spokesman said: 'He had competing warrants. The Spanish (warrant) was discharged and replaced by the Swiss warrant, which is the current case.
'As only one set of proceedings can be in place at any one time, this was the solution to this person.'
Betancourt Lopez, who is understood to be leasing both bail properties and has homes in Paris, New York, Florida and Spain where he allegedly bought a £21 million hilltop castle, has invested in companies and property in territories across Europe and the US.
He is chairman and chief executive of Derwick Associates, an engineering, procurement and construction company, as well as majority shareholder of international investment group O'Hara Administration and a director of Canadian gas and oil company Pacific Exploration & Production Corporation.
Betancourt Lopez denies any wrongdoing and continues to contest the extradition request. A five-day hearing is due to take place in May.
