USDT Involved in Failed $230 Million Oil Deal with Poland's Orlen

Tether's stablecoin USDT is embroiled in a failed oil deal with Venezuela, resulting in a loss of approximately $230 million for Poland's state-owned energy giant Orlen. The transaction took place at the end of 2023, when Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA began requiring payments in USDT to evade U.S. financial sanctions. In November 2023, Samer Awad, a former executive of Orlen's trading subsidiary Orlen Trading Switzerland, led a procurement of 6 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil from PDVSA. On December 4, Orlen transferred a $230 million advance payment to the Dubai seller Hannon International Middle East, which exchanged the funds for USDT through multiple cryptocurrency brokers and intermediaries. However, most of the funds went missing during the transfers, and Orlen only received about $29 million worth of crude oil before terminating the contract. The flow of funds indicated that Hannon exchanged $800 million USDT for a $400,000 commission and sent $135 million to Horizon Global, claiming to have received only $85 million USDT. In January 2024, Hannon employees delivered two USB drives containing $60 million and $50 million USDT to brokers in Caracas. In January 2025, the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office announced an investigation into the related oil contracts, involving losses of approximately $378 million.

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