When a billionaire locked in an extradition battle has his good name to clear and two multi-million pound properties at his disposal, there’s no chance of a flight risk.
Unless he wants to get between the two mansions, of course.
Venezuelan energy magnate Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt Lopez has been granted the unusual bail condition of being able to travel by private helicopter between his luxury residences in Chelsea and Oxfordshire while he fights legal attempts to make him travel to Switzerland to face alleged money laundering offences.
The main bail address approved by Westminster Magistrates Court is the £24 million six-bedroom contemporary mansion in west London, called Burnsall House.
Described in marketing literature as ‘the largest detached home to have been built in Chelsea for almost a decade’, it boasts a huge kitchen/dining/living area, sumptuous sitting room and secluded patio garden, as well as a wine cellar and indoor swimming pool.
The alternative bolthole is 14-bedroom Kingstone Lisle Park, a Grade II listed Georgian country house near Wantage which was last sold for £18 million in 2018 prior to extensive renovations.
Set in a private estate with sculptured grounds and a croquet lawn, parts of its interior was once described by Country Life as ‘one of the most breath-taking surprises to be found in an English country home’.
The ground floor of the property, which dates from 1677, has a high-ceilinged dining room and drawing room, octagonal study, morning room, kitchen/breakfast room, butler’s pantry, gun room and staff sitting room.
Venezuelan energy magnate Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt Lopez, 45, denies alleged money laundering offences and is fighting extradition to Switzerland
The first floor has a large master bedroom suite and second bedroom, while the upper first floor has a guest wing with two double bedrooms and adjoining bathroom.
Another staircase leads to a second guest floor with four double bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Also on the first floor is the children’s wing, with four bedrooms, a bathroom, children’s sitting room, linen room and nanny’s en suite bedroom.
The estate was often visited by the late Diana, Princess of Wales with Prince Harry when her Lady in Waiting, Laura Grieg, lived there.
Under bail conditions set by the court, Betancourt Lopez, 45 – who has surrendered his Venezuelan and Italian passports – must not apply for any international travel documents or be in possession of any.
But he can live at the two addresses and use London Heliport in Battersea to travel between them.
Betancourt Lopez, who is worth an estimated £2.6 billion, was arrested on November 3 in Charing Cross under an international arrest warrant from Switzerland.
Swiss authorities allege he was involved in money laundering there between October 2010 and January 2018.
Betancourt Lopez has been granted bail conditions by Westminster Magistrates Court to fly by private helicopter between 14-bedroom Kingstone Lisle Park near Wantage in Oxfordshire and Burnsall House, £24 million six-bedroom contemporary mansion in Chelsea, west London
One of the bedrooms in Kingstone Lisle Park, whose interior was once described by Country Life as ‘one of the most breath-taking surprises to be found in an English country home’
An elegant walled outdoor swimming pool is among the charming features of the country estate
He was initially held in custody but released on bail after paying a £2 million security.
The businessman was previously arrested in the Oxford area in September under a European Arrest Warrant issued by Spain – although it is understood this was withdrawn.
A court spokesman said: ‘He had competing warrants. The Spanish (warrant) was discharged and replaced by the Swiss warrant, which is the current case.
‘As only one set of proceedings can be in place at any one time, this was the solution to this person.’
Betancourt Lopez, who is understood to be leasing both bail properties and has homes in Paris, New York, Florida and Spain where he allegedly bought a £21 million hilltop castle, has invested in companies and property in territories across Europe and the US.
He is chairman and chief executive of Derwick Associates, an engineering, procurement and construction company, as well as majority shareholder of international investment group O’Hara Administration and a director of Canadian gas and oil company Pacific Exploration & Production Corporation.
The entrepreneur is also president of Hawkers, a Spanish sunglasses company. His attorney, Thomas Clare, said in a letter that the allegations against him are ‘politically motivated’.
Any suggestion of his client or his companies being ‘engaged in corrupt activities, such as bribery, bid-rigging, kickbacks or other illegal behaviour’ were ‘categorically false’, he added. Despite the extradition case, Betancourt Lopez has continued to promote his business interests by appearing in a number of interviews.
The living area in the sumptuous detached house in a ‘quiet residential street’
The house boasts a living kitchen/dining/living area that opens onto a secluded patio garden
The house also has an indoor swimming pool
In one with Business Money on November 21, he described his commercial philosophy as being a ‘massive risk taker [but with] a good batting average’.
He added: ‘I’m the person that, when it goes bad, I sink with the ship. I don’t walk out of the ship.’
Betancourt Lopez denies any wrongdoing and continues to contest the extradition request. A five-day hearing is due to take place in May.
Betancourt Lopez was contacted for a comment.