A single phone call in March transformed a wealthy Venezuelan oilman wanted abroad into the Trump administration's newest business partner, according to new reporting from The Washington Post.

The Post reported on Friday that Mauricio Claver-Carone, President Donald Trump's former special envoy for Latin America, reached out to Alejandro Betancourt, a Venezuelan oil magnate who runs his operations from Britain. Betancourt rose to prominence in Venezuela's energy sector more than a decade ago, when a group he led acquired the Venezuelan assets of U.S.-listed Harvest Natural Resources in 2015, and he has since been a recurring figure in probes examining money flowing out of the country's oil industry.

The Trump administration sought a stake in Betancourt's company, North American Blue Energy Partners, according to The Post. In exchange, Betancourt would be required to surrender some ownership and allow the administration to seat its own people on his board. The deal reflects the administration's broader interest in securing a financial foothold in Venezuela's oil sector, which holds some of the world's largest proven crude reserves but has been hobbled by sanctions, underinvestment, and the collapse of state producer PDVSA's output.

Two people briefed on the conversation told The Post that Betancourt responded to Claver-Carone without hesitation: "I'm all in."

The arrangement has drawn scrutiny because Betancourt has been under investigation for years in multiple countries for money laundering, The Post reported. Earlier this week, former Trump official Elliott Abrams criticized the administration for working with Betancourt in a Post op-ed. Abrams served as special representative for Venezuela during Trump's first term, when U.S. policy centered on sanctions and isolating the government of Nicolás Maduro.

"Trump has allied the government with the most shadowy and repellent Venezuelan businessman he could find," Abrams wrote. "We knew exactly what Betancourt stood for and kept him far away from the U.S. government. No longer."

Betancourt was arrested twice in Britain in 2025 after Spain and Switzerland issued warrants for his arrest connected to money laundering cases, The Post reported. In May, the Swiss withdrew their extradition request to Britain and then asked Washington to detain him, anonymous sources told The Post.

Instead, a senior State Department official in the Trump administration requested that the U.S. Consulate in London issue Betancourt a one-year, multiple-entry visa, which it did in June, according to The Post. He has traveled repeatedly to Washington since then.

"We just wanted to have access to him so we could finalize this arrangement," a senior U.S. official told The Post.

Another senior official told reporters on Tuesday that Betancourt is "a proven operator," while adding: "I'm not nominating anyone for sainthood here. What I am telling you is that this is a person that, in the past, has been helpful to the United States government."