Overview
- Orlen Trading Switzerland signed late-2023 contracts to buy Venezuelan Merey crude and sent large prepayments to Dubai intermediaries that did not result in full deliveries.
- Polish prosecutors indicted three former Orlen/OTS managers on Aug. 7, alleging about PLN 1.5bn (roughly $378m) in damage for negligent supervision tied to three contracts.
- Financial Times reporting on Sept. 15 detailed how much of a $230m advance was converted into Tether (USDT) and moved through intermediaries, with wallet keys reportedly handed over on USB drives in Caracas, complicating tracing and recovery.
- Former OTS chief Samer A. has been detained in the United Arab Emirates since January 2025 and remains subject to Poland’s ongoing extradition request.
- Investigators note that added costs for idle tankers and logistics lift the wider estimated hit toward $424m, and the affair raises fresh questions about sanctions risk, crypto use in oil trades, and governance at the state-controlled refiner.