Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, who have traveled repeatedly to Russia for meetings with Mr. Putin, have argued that the potential to rebuild economic ties with the West could convince the Russian president to compromise in Ukraine. The administration has recently signaled it is open to deals with Russia<\/a> even before the war ends, as a way of showing it is serious about resetting the United States\u2019 relationship with Moscow.<\/p>\n The Lukoil sale, people familiar with the matter say, is one of those deals.<\/p>\n In a statement, a senior administration official confirmed that Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner played a direct role in helping negotiate the financial terms of the investment by the federal government in the deal to ensure that it included \u201ca substantial upfront payment and profits interest for the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokeswoman for Mr. Witkoff said that he \u201ctakes no salary and travels the world on his own plane, at his own expense, working on behalf of President Trump to negotiate peace and bring hostages home to their families.\u201d She added that Mr. Witkoff \u201chas no conflict of interest and no financial stake in this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n A Stalled Bid, and a New Contender<\/p>\n Numerous potential bidders expressed interest in at least part of Lukoil\u2019s international holdings when the assets went on the market last fall, including U.S. energy giants like Chevron<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Washington private equity firm Carlyle reached a tentative agreement<\/a> in January to buy a large share of the assets, after making the pitch that bringing Lukoil\u2019s international portfolio under U.S. ownership would further the Trump administration\u2019s goal of \u201cenergy dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n But in recent months, as U.S. approval for Carlyle\u2019s bid stalled, a different group emerged as the leading bidder: one led by Mr. Boehly, a billionaire supporter of Mr. Trump\u2019s, alongside well-connected figures in the Middle East and the U.S. government itself. The members of the partnership were reported<\/a> last week by The Financial Times.<\/p>\n Mr. Boehly is a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and donated $1 million<\/a> to MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned political committee, in December 2025. He gave another $1 million<\/a> through his investment firm, Eldridge Industries, to Mr. Trump\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n The U.S. government is taking a stake in the deal through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, an agency that invests in and lends to projects overseas. A D.F.C. official said in a statement that the potential Lukoil deal \u201cwould advance the Trump administration\u2019s commitment to strengthen U.S. economic security, advance U.S. foreign policy and lower energy prices for everyday Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n But it would not be an all-American purchase.<\/p>\n A major equity holder would be the Qatar-based conglomerate controlled by Moutaz Al-Khayyat and his brother Ramez Al-Khayyat, both of whom attended Mr. Trump\u2019s inauguration in 2025 and have since formed a partnership with Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, one of Mr. Trump\u2019s daughters, to help finance a multibillion-dollar luxury hotel resort project in southern Albania.<\/p>\n Another major stakeholder would be an Abu Dhabi-based investment fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan<\/a>, the United Arab Emirates\u2019 top national security adviser, who controls another fund that purchased a large stake<\/a> in the Trump family\u2019s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty, run in part by Mr. Witkoff\u2019s son.<\/p>\n Steve Witkoff was a co-founder<\/a> of World Liberty, and Mr. Trump\u2019s sons are also involved in the company, which generated $799 million<\/a> for Mr. Trump last year, in part because of an additional cryptocurrency purchase worth $2 billion that<\/a> Sheikh Tahnoon\u2019s affiliate made in 2025. Mr. Witkoff himself has sold off his stake in World Liberty, a person close to him said.<\/p>\n Sheikh Tahnoon also helps oversee an Abu Dhabi investment fund called Lunate<\/a>, which is among the largest stakeholders in the private equity firm Mr. Kushner set up after he left the White House at the end of Mr. Trump\u2019s first term. This means Sheikh Tahnoon is effectively a business partner of Mr. Kushner\u2019s as well.<\/p>\n An \u2018Alarming\u2019 Set of Entanglements<\/p>\n Hui Chen, a former Justice Department prosecutor and a white collar crime and ethics adviser who served until the start of Mr. Trump\u2019s first term, said the connections between Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner to players in the Lukoil deal illustrated why friends and family members of Mr. Trump\u2019s should not be top foreign policy advisers.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an alarming and very concerning set of entanglements,\u201d said Ms. Chen, who has also worked as a corporate compliance lawyer. \u201cAnd it means you have to question how the Trump administration is evaluating the different bidders involved here. Are the personal interests involved going to wrongly influence the outcome?\u201d<\/p>\n Lukoil\u2019s international division, which is based in Austria, hired its own Washington-based consultant who is close to Mr. Trump, Bryan Lanza,<\/a> who served as a senior adviser to Mr. Trump\u2019s 2024 election campaign and now works at Mercury Public Affairs. He is no longer working for Lukoil, a person familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n The deal is not yet final, and would need to be approved by the Treasury Department, which oversees sanctions enforcement.<\/p>\n But in the case of Lukoil, people involved said, the key decisions are being made at the White House. Asked about its approach to the Lukoil decision, a Treasury Department spokeswoman said that the agency\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control \u201cimplements foreign policy as determined by the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sept. 5 meeting with Mr. Putin was the first time that Lukoil came up in the Russian president\u2019s conversations with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, one person familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n But Kirill Dmitriev, Mr. Putin\u2019s economic envoy, has been closely involved, people familiar with the sale process said. He traveled to New York and Washington for meetings last month, and told<\/a> reporters that \u201cdialogue\u201d with the United States was \u201ccontinuing across many areas, including energy.\u201d<\/p>\n Lukoil\u2019s refineries in the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Romania play an important role. They produce diesel and jet fuel<\/a>, which have been in short supply since the start of the Iran war, which has driven up prices and given Mr. Trump an incentive to support a deal that could provide more access to energy. <\/p>\n Lukoil valued<\/a> its international assets at $20 billion earlier this year, but the price and structure of the proposed deal are not clear.<\/p>\n An official with the D.F.C., the U.S. agency investing in the deal, described participation in the purchase as a way to strengthen the energy security of U.S. allies. The official also said the deal would produce significant profits for the American taxpayer and keep strategic infrastructure away from adversaries.<\/p>\n Scramble for Assets<\/p>\n The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Lukoil a year ago, describing<\/a> the move as new pressure on Mr. Putin to \u201cstop the killing.\u201d It also created a lucrative opportunity: Lukoil was forced to sell off its sprawling portfolio of international holdings.<\/p>\n Investors around the world scrambled to bid on the assets, but the U.S. government held veto power because it controlled how to enforce its sanctions. Because of Russia\u2019s autocratic system, Mr. Putin was seen as the final decision maker in Moscow. <\/p>\n The bidding frenzy accelerated last November, when the Treasury Department rejected an initial offer by Gunvor<\/a>, a Swiss-based energy trading company with past ties to Russia, which had moved to buy Lukoil\u2019s foreign assets. The Treasury Department said in a statement<\/a> that \u201cas long as Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlin\u2019s puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operate and profit.\u201d<\/p>\n Carlyle secured a \u201cnonexclusive\u201d agreement in January with Lukoil to sell its international assets. It was up to the Treasury Department to then sign off on the deal. As months passed with no final deal, other bidders intensified their efforts to step in.<\/p>\n Mr. Boehly has little experience in the oil and gas industry. He has made most of his money through investment firms such as Guggenheim Partners and Eldridge Industries, as well as sports team and entertainment industry investments, including Bruce Springsteen\u2019s<\/a> music catalog.<\/p>\n But over the last several years, the billionaire Khayyat brothers, who were born in Syria before moving to Qatar during the Syrian civil war, have begun to amass a collection of oil industry assets and planned projects in Syria,<\/a> Libya<\/a> and Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even while the Lukoil negotiations were underway, the Khayyats were continuing to work with Mr. Kushner and Ivanka Trump over plans to build the luxury resort in Albania, an effort that included a meeting involving Ramez Al-Khayyat and Ms. Trump earlier this year in Albania, The Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n The decision over Lukoil\u2019s fate has taken so long that the Treasury Department has had to repeatedly issue extensions to its sanctions action, so that Lukoil gas stations in the United States and other businesses around the world could continue to engage with other financial partners. The most recent extension<\/a> lasts until Oct. 29.<\/p>\n
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