Former CIA Venezuela chief registers as lobbyist for controversial offshore crypto firm

In response to a $45 million fine from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in early 2023, the Cayman Islands-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Nexo Capital ended its operations in the United States until February of this year.

“The company’s official U.S. relaunch is being executed in partnership with regulated partners, providing a U.S.-compliant framework for the company’s investment and credit product offerings,” declared Nexo Capital in a February 16 press release. The “digital asset trading infrastructure” for the relaunch was further named as Bakkt, a former subsidiary of the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) which was nearly acquired by the Trump Media and Technology Group in late 2024, leading to a major rise and subsequent fall of Bakkt’s stock.

Co-founded in 2018 by the former Bulgarian parliament member Antoni Trenchev, Nexo Capital on Monday registered that it has begun lobbying the U.S. federal government through a Trump-aligned former CIA chief of station in Venezuela, Enrique A. de la Torre. (The registration has not been previously reported.)

Bakkt’s former CEO, former U.S. Sen. Kelly L. Loeffler, is the spouse of NYSE chairman Jeffrey Sprecher and has served as President Trump’s Small Business Administration chief since February 2025. More than $200 million of President Trump’s $2.2 billion in income last year were derived from his holdings in the controversial cryptocurrency firm World Liberty Financial, whose stakeholders are intimately intertwined with the President’s foreign policy in the Middle East.

(The Wall Street Journal further reported last month that the CIA in 2023 assigned its senior operations officer Jonathan “Jonny” Gannon as Abu Dhabi station chief, with a central mission of monitoring the China ties of the state-affiliated technology investment firm Group 42, which has played a major role in both World Liberty Financial and in Trump’s “Stargate” artificial intelligence initiative.)

De la Torre’s firm leading the lobbying campaign for Nexo, Tower Strategy, quickly strengthened its Venezuela bona fides through recruiting James B. Story, a former U.S. ambassador to the country, as a strategic advisor. Tower’s original batch of clients were further transferred from de la Torre’s previous position at Continental Strategy, which was founded by former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States Carlos Trujillo. (The New Yorker characterized Trujillo, who has maintained close relations with U.S. secretary of state Marco A. Rubio, as “a top Latino strategist for Trump.”)

Monday’s registration further names the Tower Strategy staffer and former Chuck Grassley (R-IA) aide Cesar Dager as supporting the lobbying campaign.

Nexo Capital co-founder Antoni Trenchev’s home country of Bulgaria has played an outsized role in the second Trump administration’s activities in the Middle East, as personified by former Bulgarian defense and foreign minister Nickolay Mladenov serving as the High Representative for Gaza in Trump’s Board of Peace.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi further recently warned his Bulgarian counterpart, Velislava Petrova-Chamova, that the U.S. Air Force’s usage of Bulgaria’s Bezmer Air Base as part of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran constitutes an act of aggression by Bulgaria.