Swiss freeze assets of Maduro-linked businessman with Luxembourg ties

Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt López, who has links to four companies listed on the Luxembourg Business Register, is among the associates of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro whose assets have been frozen by Switzerland.

Luxembourg is not taking any action against Maduro or his associates, because he is “not designated [as sanctioned] by the EU or the UN”, a finance ministry spokesperson told Luxembourg Times on Tuesday. “The Ministry of Finance has no information about assets belonging to Nicolás Maduro in Luxembourg,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

The Federal Council of Switzerland announced the freeze on assets in the country held by Maduro “and other persons associated with him” on Monday as a “precautionary measure” following the US operation to take Maduro and his wife to face charges in New York.

The council said it wanted “to ensure that any illicitly acquired assets cannot be transferred out of Switzerland in the current situation.” The full list, as of Monday, comprised some 37 names.

Switzerland has had some sanctions against Venezuela in force since 2018. , including asset freezes. The country’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, was one of the people sanctioned at the time. 

OpenLux investigation

Betancourt López was first linked with the Grand Duchy in reports by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its associated media outlets as part of the OpenLux investigation in 2021.

The reports claimed that Betancourt López had close ties to Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez. The businessman was linked to Latin America Ventures SARL, which in August last year filed a balance sheet for 2024 that showed it had assets totalling just $6.47 million, after its 2022 balance sheet indicated assets of just over $252 million. Betancourt López is listed as the sole beneficial owner, according to 2019 corporate records in the Luxembourg register.

Ming International, another of the companies mentioned in the OCCRP article and registered in Rue de Rollingergrund, had assets worth more than €110 million at the end of 2023, according to a filing made with the Luxembourg Business Registrer in September 2025.

Another company, Gainsboro Developments, last filed accounts in 2022 when it had assets of over €22.5 million on its books.

The fourth company, O’Hara Financial SA went into voluntary liquidation in July 2021. O’Hara Administration, based in Panama and run by Betancourt López, is a multidisciplinary investment fund and family office, according to its website. O’Hara and Betancourt López were in the news at the end of last year thanks to its investment in Spanish sunglasses brand Hawkers.

According to media reports in business specialist magazines, Betancourt López took the helm at Hawkers in November 2016 after he led a €50 million investment round that allowed O’Hara Administration to become the sunglasses maker’s largest shareholder. He steered the company through Spain’s latest economic crisis, and via store and geographical expansion, as well as building an in-house manufacturing facility, got the company to post annual revenues exceeding €100 million. A 2017 endorsement by football superstar Lionel Messi also helped gain exposure for the brand.

Cousins also on Swiss list

Two of Betancourt López’s cousins and former business partners, Francisco Convit and Pedro Trebbau are also on the Swiss frozen assets list. They are named as associates of the former Venezuelan vice minister of electric power under Chávez, Nervis Gerardo Villalobos Cárdenas, who is also on the Swiss frozen assets list alongside his son Nervis Alejandro and daughter Maria Isabel.

The Swiss authorities also named Betancourt López and Trebbau as founders, and Convit as director, of energy company Derwick Associates. The company was previously under investigation for being a key entity in a scheme that led to more than €3.3 billion from Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, being diverted through shell companies.

Convit was also a one-time director of a Dutch foundation called Stichting Administratiekantoor, which was listed in Luxembourg as owning Latin American Ventures. He was replaced at the Amsterdam-based Stichting in 2018 by Orlando José Alvarado Moreno, who was a Derwick director and also was in charge of Gainsboro Developments between 2019 and 2021.

Betancourt’s lawyers told the OCCRP in 2021 that their client used his companies for legitimate investments and has not hidden himself or them from the public. “In fact, his interest in Luxembourg companies is publicly disclosed for the world to see,” they argued.