USDT in Polish Oil Deal: FT Reports $230M Project Failure

Tether’s USDt appears to have played a central role in a Venezuelan crude oil deal that went badly wrong for Poland’s largest energy company. According to the Financial Times, the stablecoin was used in a failed transaction tied to state energy firm PDVSA, leaving Orlen—via its trading arm—out of an advance payment totaling $230 million in late 2023. The episode highlights both the promise and the fragility of stablecoin rails in high-risk international settlement scenarios, especially where traditional banking routes are constrained by sanctions. It also raises fresh questions about where value went once funds entered crypto intermediaries. Key takeaways Financial Times reports that a $230 million advance in a Venezuelan oil contract was largely paid using Tether USDt (USDT), before Orlen received only a small portion of the cargo value. The FT says PDVSA began requesting partial payments in USDT as a workaround to US financial sanctions. Reported payment trails involved multiple Dubai- and Caracas-linked intermediaries, with later disputes over how much USDT was actually transferred. Legal action followed: Warsaw prosecutors opened an investigation in January 2025 for losses linked to Orlen Trading Services, and later reporting said former executives were indicted. Hannon’s legal representative told Cointelegraph that Hannon was not responsible for the failure and said it is pursuing recovery efforts. How USDT entered the PDVSA oil payments Earlier coverage described how Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA sought to accelerate a shift toward cryptocurrencies amid sanctions pressure. In the disputed arrangement, PDVSA began demanding partial payments in USDT to bypass restrictions affecting access to US-linked financial channels, as Reuters reported in April 2024: Venezuela accelerate cryptocurrency shift oil sanctions return 2024. Against that backdrop, Financial Times reported that Orlen Trading Switzerland (OTS)—a trading subsidiary of Poland’s state-controlled energy giant Orlen—entered a contract to buy 6 million barrels of Venezuelan crude in November 2023. The FT said the oil trade was orchestrated by Samer Awad, a former executive at OTS. According to the FT, OTS transferred a $230 million advance payment largely in USDT to a Dubai-based seller, Hannon International Middle East, on Dec. 4, 2023. The contract was later canceled after Orlen received only about $29 million worth of oil. Missing funds and disputes among intermediaries Financial Times’ reporting centers on what happened after the initial USDT-based payment. The FT said Hannon attempted to source the USDT needed for the purchase by working through various crypto brokers and intermediaries. Instead of clean settlement, the funds appear to have fragmented across multiple transfers, with most allegedly vanishing into a complicated sequence of transactions. Cointelegraph sought comment from Tether and Orlen, but the article’s included material focuses on the response from Hannon’s legal counsel.