Orlen USDT oil deal: $230m paid, 12.5% returned, $110m on USB sticks

Orlen's Swiss trading arm paid $230 million up front for Venezuelan crude in late 2023, most of it settled in USDT, and received $28.8 million of oil, Cointelegraph reports on a Financial Times investigation. That is 12.5% of the money back.

“Hannon became involved in the transaction at Orlen's request and was not responsible for the transaction's failure. Hannon has since taken significant steps, at its own expense, to recover the funds paid in connection with the transaction.”

— David McCoy, Statement to Cointelegraph, 15 September 2026

David McCoy, managing partner at ADG Legal Abu Dhabi, for Hannon International Middle East

Where the money went

Orlen Trading Switzerland wired the advance to Hannon International Middle East in Dubai on 4 December 2023, to buy 6 million barrels from the state producer PDVSA. PDVSA had begun asking for part payment in USDT to route around American sanctions, which is the reason a stablecoin entered an oil contract at all.

Hannon then bought $80 million of USDT from a Dubai financial services firm, paying a $400,000 commission. That is 0.50%, the price of sourcing dollars nobody will wire. It sent $135 million to Horizon Global in Dubai and says it received $85 million of USDT back, a $50 million shortfall that Horizon disputes. It sent $30 million to Gold Mar International Trading and recovered $21 million in February 2024.

In January 2024 Hannon employees handed a broker in Caracas two USB sticks carrying $60 million and $50 million of USDT. Those two sticks held 47.8% of the entire advance. Another $11 million followed in February and $11 million more on 8 March, taking the total moved to Caracas brokers to $132 million, or 57.4% of what Orlen paid.

The published figures do not close. Add the purchase and the two outgoing transfers and you get $80 million plus $135 million plus $30 million, which is $245 million against a $230 million advance. Either the same money went round more than once or the account is partial. The shortfalls anyone has named come to $59 million, a quarter of the advance, and nothing accounts for the rest.

Orlen USDT oil deal: the price that flipped

The trade made sense on the discount, and only on the discount. Divide $230 million by 6 million barrels and the advance implies $38.33 a barrel. Brent averaged $82.03 through November 2023, so Orlen was buying at 47% of the world price, which is what sanctioned crude costs and why anyone accepts payment on a USB stick.

On 8 March 2024 the ship loaded about 500,000 barrels, and it was fuel oil rather than the crude in the contract, worth $28.8 million. That works out at $57.60 a barrel, or 70% of Brent. Orlen advanced money at half the world price and took delivery of a different product at three quarters of it. In barrels the delivery was 8.33% of the order.

What happened after

Orlen Trading Services terminated the contract on 28 March 2024, 115 days after paying. The Warsaw Regional Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation in January 2025 into damages of 1.5 billion zloty across the unit's oil contracts. In August 2026 three former managers were indicted, named under Polish privacy rules as Michal R., Marcin O. and Filip W. All three deny wrongdoing and face up to 25 years.

One number in that paragraph holds still and the other does not. The damages are 1.5 billion zloty. In dollars that was $378 million at the rate implied when the case opened and $399 million at today's 3.758, so the headline moves with the currency market rather than with the evidence. The pattern, though, is fixed: hours before this story broke, prosecutors in New York moved to seize $61 million of USDT tied to Iranian oil, and the Treasury had already named the sector in August. Sanctioned oil now settles in the one dollar that needs no bank, and the issuer can freeze it, which is the part buyers keep discovering last.

Informational material, not investment advice. The Polish case is at the indictment stage and the accused deny wrongdoing.