Four senior U.S. Senate Democrats challenged the Pentagon’s proposed stake in Venezuelan oil company NABEP, asking whether the Defense Department has legal authority to buy equity in an oil firm. The proposal would give the Pentagon 35% of NABEP. On Wednesday, September 30, 2026, the senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Who Controls the Proposed Stake
The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital would hold the 35% stake. The unit was established to finance technology deemed vital to defense. The senators said its mandate covers loans and guarantees, not equity in private oil firms. Their challenge is whether a defense financing office can own a stake in an oil company.
Jeanne Shaheen, Jack Reed, Martin Heinrich and Elizabeth Warren signed the letter. Each served as the senior Democrat on the foreign relations, armed services, energy or banking committee, respectively. The Wall Street Journal first reported the letter, and Quartz and WION carried its contents on October 1.
The senators asked the administration to provide the agreement text and explain the deal’s legal basis. They also requested the State Department’s plan for purchasing NABEP oil and details about NABEP’s vetting. Their questions put the proposed ownership stake and government oil purchases before committee leaders overseeing the matter.
The letter asked whether Trump family members or political donors could benefit from the deal. It cited past money-laundering investigations of NABEP leader Alejandro Betancourt in Spain, Switzerland and the United States. The senators said Betancourt had never been charged and noted that Rubio said he wasn’t under active U.S. investigation.
The 35% stake had been reported previously. The letter added a formal legal challenge, but it doesn’t require the administration to halt the deal. It isn’t binding. The proposal could proceed unless the administration changed course.
No public response from the Pentagon, State Department or Energy Department had been reported by October 1. Whether the senators set a deadline for answers remained unclear. The account didn’t make public the agencies’ response or the legal basis the senators requested.
Treasury’s Separate Sanctions Action
On the same day as the Senate letter, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated 10 targets in an ATM fraud scheme and a separate gang leader. The scheme used malware to force cash machines in the United States to dispense cash. Treasury said Anibal Alexander Canelón Aguirre, known as “Prometheus,” had “orchestrated” the operation. He was on the FBI’s ten most-wanted list.
Treasury called Canelón “the alleged engineer of the malware” and said his network was based in Mexico and Venezuela. Reported U.S. losses from such attacks reached US$40.73 million across more than 1,500 attacks as of August 2025. The designation list included two Mexican companies and Juan Gabriel Rivas Núñez, known as “Juancho,” whom the article linked to illegal gold mining.
The sanctions froze any U.S. assets belonging to those named. Treasury’s release didn’t identify Canelón’s current location. An X headline shared Thursday morning used the label “new brain” (nuevo cerebro) and placed Canelón in Venezuela; an Impacto Venezuela YouTube newscast used a similar “brain in Venezuela?” phrase. Treasury didn’t use “brain” in its release; it said Canelón “orchestrated” the scheme. El Nacional and Infobae didn’t use that label either. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would deny “these terrorist financial facilitators the resources they need.”