Venezuela’s Opposition on What U.S. Military Moves Mean for Maduro
by Clara Preve
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A Greek shipping network that spent years evading U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil is now lobbying the Trump administration for permission to keep doing business — while its CEO dines at the White House.
Welcome to Whale Hunting, where we follow the money behind some of the world's most brazen financial crimes and expose the networks of people who enable them.
In December 2025, Alexandros Exarchou attended a high-profile event at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., hosted by President Donald Trump.
Exarchou, the CEO of the Athens-listed Aktor Group, was there to celebrate a massive 20-year deal to buy liquefied natural gas from the United States. His company, through a joint venture, was positioning itself as a key partner in U.S. and European energy security, helping to replace Russian gas with American LNG.
It was a moment of triumph for a Greek executive. In the months that followed, Aktor Group would sign a $6 billion LNG deal with Albania and deliver its first cargo to Ukraine. Exarchou was the legitimate face of a booming Western energy enterprise.
But while Exarchou was dining with the American political elite, a very different operation connected to his business partners was playing out in the Caribbean Sea.
The Trump administration's retreat from sanctions enforcement has cracked open the Venezuelan oil sector. Front of the line are characters like this network—already positioned, moving oil, and lobbying to have their operations blessed as legitimate.
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