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Orleen enlisted an external company, Hannon, to take care of the purchase, which it did by enlisting the services of UK firm Lexcor Energy, which supposedly had a Venezuelan office. Hannon first needed to convert a large sum into USDT, and did so by exchanging $245m at multiple Dubai companies, adding $15m of its own to the deal. Only one of multiple transfers of $80m into 80m USDT was fully successful.
As for the other two, $135m exchange only produced 85m USDT out the other end, with $50m still unaccounted for. A third exchange of $30m also vanished (partially returning much later). The proverbial PNL is currently -$80m, and Hannon has 165m USDT in hand. All this while, three Polish oil tankers headed to Venezuela anchored there, continually racking up millions in demurrage and port fees, as they were being chartered for far longer than initially agreed.
Weeks of delays followed, which Hannon pinned on Venezuelan energy company PDVSA. One of Hannon's reps, Kam Tse, headed to Venezuela himself with a colleague, loaded with the USDT, stored in multiple cold wallets on USB sticks. They stayed in high-end hotels, drove around in armored cars, and employed bodyguards out of concern for the money and themselves. Tse found many brokers claiming to be from PDVSA, a cadre later revealed to contain a substantial number of con-men, many of whom fled as a local investigation came cracking down.
The buyers were nevertheless undeterred, and they handed 60m USDT in a USB wallet to a purported representative of local energy corp Synergy. After a few weeks of waiting, a Venezuelan office sent him a picture of a purported PDVSA export schedule displaying all three Polish tankers set to be loaded with 1.9m barrels of oil each, but with no predicted date. Ever-trusting, Tse's team then handed Synergy's representative another 50m USDT on another USB wallet. Said representative vanished in a cloud of smoke. PNL currently sits at -$190m.
Mexican cartel's crypto farm seized in mountain raid
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cryptocurrency/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cryptocurrency/poland-lost-usd230m-in-cryptocurrency-trying-to-buy-venezuelan-oil-in-2023-adventure-puts-crypto-wallet-ownership-identification-at-the-forefront#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.