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Imagine the world's largest money laundering jurisdiction (Switzerland) issuing an arrest warrant for a money launderer. That is exactly what is happening to Alejandro Betancourt. The reason? His direct involvement in a scheme to loot $4+ billion out of PDVSA. He didn’t do it alone, of course. His associates from Derwick were there. Luis and Ignacio Oberto Anselmi "structured" the deal. Nervis Villalobos pitched it to Rafael Ramirez, PDVSA CEO at the time, who, definitely uncharacteristically, called for a board meeting, tasked corrupt colleagues to disburse billions and approved the whole thing in less than a week. Betancourt is being made the fall guy now, but how about the rest?
Spain's High Court named Pedro Trebbau, Francisco Convit, along with Betancourt, explicitly for the first time in connection to the scheme. Convit and Betancourt also participated in a separate $1.2 billion U.S. Dollar money laundering scheme, for which Convit remains a wanted fugitive and Betancourt is known to U.S. Justice Department’s authorities as co-conspirator 2. That is, Derwick Associates went from selling used power plants that didn’t work to participate in PDVSA's largest ever looting cases (over $5.2 billion).
The Oberto Anselmi brothers, while not explicitly mentioned, were also exposed by the Court, which signaled Violet Advisors and Welka Holding as recipients of PDVSA's billions. The Oberto Anselmi continue laundering millions, to the very recent past, by selling fine art at auction.
Nervis Villalobos is involved in so many criminal probes, in so many jurisdictions, that it would take a miracle for him to walk free for much longer.
This site published a detailed account of how the deal came to be. Shortly after, an agent from Homeland Security Investigations reached out, keen to discuss information on Venezuelan corruption and international money laundering, to which we agreed. It remains a mystery how Rafael Ramirez has escaped explicit mentions and charges in relation to this affair, given that both the Homeland Security agent and Ramirez were based in Rome at the time.
It has been reported that the Homeland Security Investigation ended up with charges to a number of individuals, who pleaded guilty and admitted to having paid millions of dollars worth of bribes to the likes of Ramirez.
If a poster boy of chavismo's rampant corruption had to be chosen, Alejandro Betancourt's face would grace the campaign. We almost forgot when we started researching and posting about Betancourt's "entrepreneurial career", but it's been more than a decade. Since appearing in Venezuela's corruption league, Betancourt has denied every accusation, has kept ahead of every criminal probe, has spent tens of millions of U.S. Dollars in PR, lobbyists and lawyers, in every jurisdiction where he operates he has courted and employed corrupt politicians, former prosecutors, America's Mayor, and has partnered with the very worst specimens from Caracas all the way to Russia's FSB. Betancourt is, and has always been, a criminal.
But so far, American, Swiss, Spanish, Andorran, Italian, Colombian, Canadian, and British authorities have not been able to make anything stick. Switzerland, for instance, ignored for many years the fact that Betancourt effectively controlled a Swiss bank (Banca Credinvest), despite our exposé about it in September 2017. As it turns out, Betancourt & co had 51 accounts at Credinvest. It is impossible not to be reminded of another episode, also in Switzerland, when a prosecutor dismissed a case about Alex Saab's having laundered about $126 million at UBS.
Spanish and British tax authorities have sparred about Betancourt in the past. Curiously, Betancourt boasts about his net worth: £2.6 billion. The Daily Mail, one of Britain's most read media, posted a story last week entitled "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", where bail details regarding the two instances in which Betancourt has been arrested in the UK were published. The news that Switzerland wants Betancourt is now part of the public record.
Extradition cases are dealt with by Westminster's Magistrates Court, which set a hearing for May 2026. In the meantime, Betancourt can helicopter his way to the two multi million Pound Sterling residences he keeps in the UK. According to the Daily Mail, Betancourt surrendered his Italian and Venezuelan passports and can no longer travel internationally. Given that, for tax purposes, Betancourt is a resident of the UK, how could his fortune grow to £2.6 billion? How much of what he keeps, say at Banca Credinvest, is reported to British tax authorities?
