Controversies
A 2001 article in The Observer stated that in 1995 Vitol had secretly paid US$1 million to Serbian war criminal Arkan to settle a deal with a Serbian Oil company, Orion.[38] Vitol has denied all charges, arguing that no government agency has ever prosecuted the company in this respect.[39]
In 2007, Vitol pleaded guilty to grand larceny in a New York court for paying surcharges to Iraq's national oil company during Saddam's regime and circumventing the UN oil-for-food program. Vitol subsequently paid $17.5 million in restitution for its actions.[40]
According to an article in the Financial Times, Vitol was the company to organise the first controversial sale of Libyan rebel oil to Tesoro Corporation in early April 2011.[41] According to the Financial Times, the company was approached by the Qatari national oil company to sell a cargo of crude oil supplied by the Libyans in exchange for technological supplies and fuel for the National Transitional Council of Libya.[42]
In September 2012, it was alleged that the company had bought and sold Iranian fuel oil, bypassing an EU embargo against Tehran. Vitol bought 2 million barrels using a ship-to-ship transfer off the coast of Malaysia from a National Iranian Tanker Company vessel and sold it to Chinese traders. It was also stated that Vitol is based in Switzerland, which did not implement international sanctions, so Vitol had skirted the charges.[43] In 2013, The Telegraph alleged that the company had been using, for over a decade, an Employee Benefit Trust, avoiding paying income tax for its UK staff.[44]
In 2018, The Dispute Settlement and Sanctions Committee of CRE, the French Energy Regulatory Commission, fined VITOL S.A. €5 million for engaging in market manipulation on the French Southern virtual Gas Trading Point (“PEG Sud”) between 1 June 2013 and 31 March 2014.[45] Vitol appealed this decision,[46] but the French Council of State confirmed the sanction in June 2021.[47]
In 2020, Vitol Inc. agreed to pay a combined total criminal penalty of $135 million to resolve bribery charges with law enforcement authorities in the United States and Brazil.[48][49] The resolution arises out of Vitol schemes to pay bribes to officials in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico.[48]
In 2023, both Shell and Vitol were accused by Oleg Ustenko, the economic advisor to the Ukrainian president, of prolonging the war in Ukraine through exploiting a loophole in EU sanctions to bring products derived from Russian oil into Europe, through Turkey. Vitol, in April 2022, had pledged to cease trading Russian origin crude oil and product.[27]
In 2024, a Vitol oil trader was convicted in the United States on corruption charges related to more than $1 million in bribes he paid to officials in Ecuador and Mexico.[50] In January 2026, in the aftermath of the second Donald Trump administration's capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and deal with the Venezuelan regime about oil, the first US sale of Venezuelan oil went to Vitol. One of Vitol's senior traders had contributed $5 million to Donald Trump's 2024 re-election campaign and had been at a high-profile meeting at the White House in January 2026 shortly before Vitol got the contract.[51]
