Harry Sargeant III exits Venezuelan oil company amid US policy shift

Harry Sargeant III, the Florida-based energy and shipping magnate who spent decades cultivating back-channel ties between Washington and Caracas, has sold his stake in Venezuela’s second-largest private oil company for $300 million. The deal, finalized around August 8, represents less of a graceful exit and more of an involuntary one, coming after the US Treasury froze his assets. The transaction involved Sargeant divesting his offshore vehicle, Bluewave Properties Ltd., which held a minority stake in North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP). The buyer is tied to Alejandro Betancourt, the Venezuelan businessman who serves as NABEP’s controlling shareholder. What forced Sargeant’s hand The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control froze Bluewave’s assets, citing violations related to a 2018 executive order that restricted American engagements with the Venezuelan government. That executive order, originally signed during Trump’s first term, limited how US persons and entities could interact with Maduro’s regime and its economic apparatus. Sargeant had been a significant Republican donor and had positioned himself as an intermediary between Washington and Caracas since the lat...