Orlen’s Swiss trading arm signed a $345 million contract with Dubai-based Hannon International in November 2023 for six million barrels of oil. Within five days of Samer Awad, the unit’s chief, meeting Hannon’s 25-year-old founder, the company wired a $230 million advance. Because US sanctions barred Venezuela’s PDVSA from dollar transactions, the funds were funneled through Tether. Brokers in Caracas reportedly received USB drives containing the digital currency to facilitate the payment.

The venture collapsed immediately. Six chartered tankers sat idle off the Venezuelan coast for months before departing empty, incurring $72 million in additional shipping costs. PDVSA maintained it never received payment and therefore loaded no oil. Of a $135 million conversion attempt, $50 million remains trapped in UAE court proceedings. Polish prosecutors have since indicted three former Orlen executives, citing total losses of 1.6 billion zloty. Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the operational failure as a global embarrassment for the state energy giant.