Poland loses $400M in failed cryptocurrency oil trade with Venezuela

Poland’s state-controlled oil refiner Orlen sent roughly $230 million to a Dubai-based intermediary for Venezuelan crude that never showed up. Then another $100 million went to a second middleman, also in Dubai, for oil that also never arrived. The money, according to investigators, appears to have been converted into cryptocurrencies and effectively vanished. The total damage: approximately $400 million in write-offs, three indicted former executives, and a scandal that has become a case study in what happens when sanctioned oil trades, crypto payments, and geopolitical whiplash collide. How $400 million evaporated through Dubai The payments flowed through Orlen Trading Switzerland, a subsidiary of the Polish refiner, to two Dubai-registered companies. Hannon International Middle East DMCC received around $230 million, while Horizon Global collected roughly $100 million. Both were supposed to facilitate deliveries of Venezuelan crude during a narrow window in late 2023 and early 2024, when the US temporarily eased sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector. The window closed. The oil never came. The money didn’t come back either. Polish prosecutors have valued the total losses at around ...