According to documents released last week, known as the Epstein Files, New York mogul Jeffrey Epstein, who faced charges of sexual trafficking and pedophilia, purchased Venezuelan oil bonds issued by the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa). Francisco D’Agostino, currently sought for extradition by the chavista justice system on money laundering and criminal conspiracy charges, advised him on these purchases.
Email exchanges included in the files published by the U.S. Department of Justice reveal that D’Agostino visited Epstein’s Caribbean island, which is at the center of the trafficking accusations against him.
In their correspondence, D’Agostino provided Epstein guidance on acquiring bonds issued by the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA).
After discussing business with D’Agostino, who holds dual citizenship in Venezuela and Spain, Epstein purchased at least $4.5 million in oil bonds beginning in 2012. These bonds were set to mature in 2015, a period when Venezuela’s oil revenues plummeted due to increasing corruption at Pdvsa and a drastic decline in production.
D’Agostino did not respond to requests for comments sent via email and phone through his assistant. Occrp also emailed a lawyer representing D’Agostino in Italy, but received no reply.
“I Had a Great Time”
The relationship between D’Agostino and Epstein appears to have begun outside a financial institution or boardroom. Rather, the emails reference their meeting during D’Agostino’s visit to Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Little Saint James, sometimes referred to as “Little Saint Jeff’s,” directly alluding to Epstein.
“I had a great time at Little St Jeffery… and Jane, the aquatic gazelle, is really impressive… what a beautiful and smart girl,” D’Agostino wrote to Epstein in October 2012.
“I really enjoyed talking to you and would love to continue exploring the different possiblities to make money together,” the Venezuelan added in the email. “I see the start of a fun and lasting friendship,” he concluded.
In October 2012, D’Agostino also proposed to Epstein the possibility of organizing a meeting agenda for the mogul in Caracas, suggesting he enjoyed a high level of access to Venezuela’s political and economic elite.
Among those he suggested presenting to Epstein was Baldo Sansó, a financial advisor to Pdvsa and brother-in-law of Rafael Ramírez, then president of the state oil company. Occrp sent questions to an email address under Sansó’s name, but did not receive an answer.
In the email exchanges from that time, Epstein seemed intent on waiting for the outcome of the October 2012 presidential elections before making plans to visit Venezuela. When D’Agostino informed him that populist president Hugo Chávez had won his fourth term by about 10%, Epstein responded tersely: “Great.”
An email from December 2012 shows that D’Agostino kept Epstein well-informed about the Venezuelan situation, which was at that time marked by President Chávez’s health, as he had been diagnosed with cancer and rumors of his imminent death circulated.
“It seems very likely that Chávez has about six months or less to live,” D’Agostino wrote, noting that Venezuela’s Constitution would require elections to be held within 30 days of the president’s death.
“I think there’s a very high probability that someone from Chávez’s movement, but less radical, will win the elections,” he predicted.
As political uncertainty spread across Venezuela, emails from January 2013 show Epstein offering to host D’Agostino again on his private island, telling him to “visit anytime.” D’Agostino replied: “By the way… how’s my water gazela (SIC)?” Epstein responded that she was “here and naked.”
Chávez passed away on March 5, 2013. His loyal follower, Nicolás Maduro, won the elections the following month. It’s unclear if Epstein ever made the planned visit to Caracas.
More Time, Greater Exposure
During the two years following that 2012 email exchange, Epstein increased his exposure to the Venezuelan oil sector, placing direct orders for additional purchases of PDVSA bonds, but the industry suffered a significant downturn.
Venezuela’s oil revenues fell by 40% between 2014 and 2015, reportedly due to low prices. However, it didn’t take long for it to become known that Pdvsa was severely impacted by corruption, which crippled its production capacity. In 2019, to pressure Nicolás Maduro’s regime, the U.S. imposed a strict series of sanctions on the Venezuelan oil sector.
That same year, Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges and later found hanged in his New York jail cell, with his death ruled a suicide. U.S. prosecutors were preparing to try him for allegedly abusing dozens of underage girls in his homes and elsewhere. He had pleaded not guilty.
D’Agostino himself came under scrutiny in the years following his contact with Epstein and after his death.
One influential individual he suggested presenting to Epstein was his alleged business associate Alejandro Betancourt López, co-founder of Derwick Associates.
Derwick received contracts to build power plants directly from Venezuelan state companies without going through a competitive bidding process, according to information reported by Occrp. The firm charged the Venezuelan government $2.9 billion in overcharges for purchasing power plants, as per the Venezuelan section of the anticorruption group Transparency International.
Betancourt did not respond to a request for comments but told Occrp in 2021 that he was innocent of the corruption charges against him.
On November 6, 2012, D’Agostino wrote to Epstein: “Alejandro Betancourt, my business partner, and I are available to meet with you on Monday, November 19. Shall we have lunch? At your place?”
Several lawsuits alleged that D’Agostino was a key figure in Derwick’s operations. Among them was a civil lawsuit filed in 2013 by the former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Otto Reich, accusing him and several executives of bribery and extortion concerning energy contracts. That case was dismissed in a U.S. court for lack of jurisdiction.
D’Agostino has consistently denied having any position at Derwick and has not been charged or convicted of the alleged fraud. In 2024, it was reported that Spain’s Audiencia Nacional opened an investigation into former Derwick executives, including D’Agostino, for alleged financial fraud involving Spanish companies.
D’Agostino was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2021 for “links to a network attempting to evade U.S. sanctions on the Venezuelan oil sector.” The Treasury removed him from its sanctions list last year.
In relation to the extradition request against him issued from Venezuela in 2024—for “allegedly committing the crimes of trafficking and illicit trade (…) money laundering and conspiracy (…) and aggravated smuggling”—D’Agostino was arrested in Italy in January of this year while attempting to cross the border into France. He was released after Italian judges ruled he risked suffering inhuman or degrading treatment if imprisoned in Venezuela, which has requested him based on a money laundering and criminal conspiracy charge. Following that brief detention and release in Italy, Venezuela reaffirmed its extradition request.
