USDT payments feature in Polish energy giant’s failed $230M oil deal: FT
Cointelegraph, citing the Financial Times, reports that Tether's USDT stablecoin was used in a failed Venezuelan oil purchase that left Poland’s state-controlled energy group Orlen out $230 million in late 2023. The deal, arranged to buy six million barrels from PDVSA, collapsed after advance payments routed through crypto intermediaries largely disappeared and Orlen received only a small fraction of the crude.
Why It Matters
The episode underscores how digital assets are being used as workarounds to sanctions and highlights the operational, financial and legal risks companies face when moving large commodity payments through crypto channels. The fallout has prompted criminal probes and corporate liability claims tied to hundreds of millions of dollars in alleged losses.
Key Facts
- Alleged loss: $230 million (advance payment)
- Buyer: Orlen / Orlen Trading Switzerland (OTS)
- Seller: Hannon International Middle East (Dubai)
- Origin of crude: PDVSA (Venezuela)
- Planned cargo: 6 million barrels (deal arranged in November 2023)
Cointelegraph, reporting on a Financial Times story, says Tether's USDt stablecoin featured in a collapsed Venezuelan oil transaction that cost Poland’s largest energy company about $230 million. The deal, arranged in late 2023 to buy crude from state oil firm PDVSA, reportedly involved demands from PDVSA for partial payments in USDT as a means to work around U.S. financial sanctions.
According to the report, Orlen wired a $230 million advance on Dec. 4, 2023 to Hannon International Middle East, a Dubai-based seller engaged at Orlen’s request. Hannon then sought to obtain USDT via multiple crypto brokers and intermediaries, but most of the value was lost amid complex transfers. Orlen ultimately took delivery of roughly $29 million worth of oil before terminating the contract.
The FT-aligned account outlines a tangled sequence of transfers: Hannon reportedly acquired $80 million in USDT from a Dubai financial services firm, paying a $400,000 commission; it then sent $135 million to a Dubai firm called Horizon Global but says only $85 million in USDT was received, creating an alleged $50 million gap that Horizon disputes. Hannon also said it sent $30 million to Gold Mar International Trading and later recovered $21 million in February 2024. In January 2024, Hannon employees are said to have provided a Caracas broker with two USB sticks holding $60 million and $50 million in USDT; the following month access to $11 million in USDT was reportedly handed to another Caracas broker. On March 8, 2024, a ship was loaded with about 500,000 barrels of fuel oil (valued at roughly $28.8 million), and Orlen terminated the Hannon contract on March 28 after receiving only a fraction of the agreed cargo.
Hannon’s legal representative, David McCoy of ADG Legal Abu Dhabi, told Cointelegraph that Hannon was involved at Orlen’s request and is not responsible for the transaction’s failure, adding that the company has spent its own funds attempting to recover payments and remains willing to discuss an amicable resolution. Cointelegraph said it contacted both Tether and Orlen for comment. The matter has since attracted official scrutiny: in January 2025 the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into OTS-related oil contracts alleging damages of 1.5 billion zloty (about $378 million), and Reuters reported that in August 2026 three former managers connected to Orlen and OTS were indicted over crude contracts tied to $378 million in damages; those individuals have denied wrongdoing.
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