Alejandro Betancourt and his six-bedroom Burnsall House mansion in Chelsea valued at £24 million / Photo: Daily Mail news
Alejandro Betancourt López, co-founder of Derwick Associates and central operator in multiple international investigations, is facing an extradition process requested by Switzerland, which accuses him of participating in money laundering operations between 2010 and 2018. This case marks a new chapter in the long list of allegations linking him to opaque financial networks, irregular public contracts, and transnational operations via companies in tax havens.
In September, the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF) of the Spanish National Police carried out several searches in properties associated with Betancourt as part of an investigation led by Judge Santiago Pedraz from the Audiencia Nacional. This action followed an international request from the Zurich, Switzerland prosecutor’s office, which has sought Spanish judicial cooperation to clarify possible money laundering operations during a period in which Derwick Associates accumulated multi-million dollar contracts in Venezuela and conducted billion-dollar transactions based on the exchange differential with PDVSA.
The billion-dollar opaque currency operations of Pdvsa with Alejandro Betancourt and Raúl Gorrín
During a dramatic raid at Castillo El Alamín in Toledo—one of Betancourt’s main properties—by UDEF, Betancourt managed to flee to England, where he was captured on November 3 under a standing international arrest warrant. After posting a bail of £2 million, he was released on provisional terms, having surrendered his Venezuelan and Italian passports.
British media—which estimates his wealth at around £2.6 billion—reported with surprise that Betancourt was authorized by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court to live in two properties that he can only travel between using the Battersea heliport:
Burnsall House, a contemporary six-bedroom mansion in Chelsea valued at £24 million, described as “the largest standalone house built in the area in nearly a decade.”Kingstone Lisle Park, a listed and renovated Georgian estate with 14 rooms, located in Oxfordshire and surrounded by extensive private gardens.
Betancourt, who denies all accusations, claiming “political persecution” against him, is preparing for a five-day hearing scheduled for May 2026, where he will attempt to block his extradition to Switzerland.
A history of investigations and opaque financial structures
In recent years, Cuentas Claras Digital has documented how Betancourt built an international network of companies with presence in:
Luxembourg (Latin America Ventures, Gainsboro Developments, O’Hara Financial, among others)Spain, where he acquired high-value propertiesThe United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Malta.Africa, where he participated in banking operations in Senegal and Ivory Coast
Various global leaks—including FinCEN Files—and legal documents have linked these corporate structures to financial movements deemed suspicious by international authorities.
It is worth noting that Betancourt faced criminal actions in Venezuela by the “prosecutor’s office” of Tarek William Saab in 2020, which ultimately benefited him with “express dismissals” of cases related to illicit activities involving the exchange differential at PDVSA. Afterward, Betancourt restored his relationship with Maduro’s regime, reclaiming control of PetroZamora, which had been managed by the brothers Ricardo and Santiago Morón, now fallen from grace.
Betancourt is expected to be the focus of a major case that Switzerland has been pursuing for several years related to money laundering from irregular operations based on Venezuela’s exchange differential, involving more than a hundred individuals including officials, bankers, financial operators, businessmen, and traders. Hundreds of millions of dollars are reportedly frozen across about 30 Swiss banks as part of multiple criminal cases.
Specifically regarding Betancourt, the arrest warrant is based on the “Money Flight” case uncovered by US authorities in 2018, which primarily indicted Francisco Convit Guruceaga, who escaped from a detention center in Caracas and is currently at an unknown location, though sources suggest he is in Madrid. While Betancourt’s name does not appear in the formal indictment of Money Flight, it has long been suspected that the so-called Conspirator 2 is actually Alejandro Betancourt.
Despite the extradition proceedings, Betancourt continues to promote his “business” activities. In a recent interview, he described himself as a “massive risk-taker” and claimed, “When things go wrong, I sink with the ship.”