Over the past 20 years, the Venezuelan oil industry has lost billions of dollars as a result of corruption.

The NGO Transparencia Venezuela reported that 17 billion dollars were stolen from the coffers of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state-owned oil giant. Officials would have taken advantage of American sanctions and the oil embargo to organize black crude sales, through cryptocurrency. Since 2017, at least 31 investigations have been opened, resulting in over 300 arrests. And tens of billions of dollars have been lost.