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Two fossil-fuel billionaires with close ties to Donald Trump bought millions of shares in the company they co-founded just days after a meeting with senior White House officials, who then issued a key regulatory permit that helped expand the company’s fortunes in Europe.
Robert Pender, an energy lawyer, and Michael Sabel, a former investment banker, are the founders and co-chairs of Venture Global, a Virginia-based company that develops and operates liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals. Sabel was among about 20 people who attended an event in April 2024 at Trump’s private club, Mar-a-Lago, when he reportedly requested $1bn in campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry in return for favorable legislation. Venture Global was among the “top donors” to Trump’s inauguration, donating $1m, according to the Wall Street Journal.
On his first day back in the White House, Trump issued an executive order rolling back regulations to favor fossil fuel production, including LNG export licences, while revoking existing climate and clean energy policies. Three days after Trump’s inauguration, Venture Global issued an IPO – an initial public offering of shares, becoming a publicly traded company. The share prospectus highlighted the Unleashing America Energy executive order, and the following day, Sabel and Pender rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
Despite the IPO being billed by Reuters as a “blockbuster” event, the shares opened nearly 4% below the original asking price at just over $24 each, valuing the company at $58.2bn. While substantially below the $110bn Venture Global had hoped for, Sabel and Pender – who between them still owned more than 80% of the firm – pocketed a paper fortune of $24bn each, according to Bloomberg.
Senior executives’ share purchases since the IPO have been reported to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and posted on its website.
On 6 March, Venture Global announced a $18bn expansion to its vast LNG export terminal in Plaquemines parish in Louisiana, situated on the Mississippi River just south of the New Orleans terminal. Among the high-profile guests to the event in Plaquemines parish were Chris Wright, Trump’s energy secretary, who has regulatory oversight of Venture Global’s operations, and Doug Burgum, secretary of the interior, who leads Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council. Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, was also there.
“I’m proud to be among you. I cannot overstate how important what you’re doing is and how aligned it is with the agenda of President Donald Trump,” said Wright. Burgum said Sabel and Pender were “amazing”, adding that there was “nothing more patriotic than an American worker that’s working to build energy dominance for this country”.
On 10 March, Sabel and Pender went on a share-buying spree. The Venture Global share price that week was a relatively low $9.37, falling after a disappointing fourth-quarter results. Every day for a week, the pair bought thousands or hundreds of thousands of shares. By the end of the week on 14 March, they had amassed just under 1.2m shares each, worth little under than $12m each. The only other share acquisition since the IPO was 1,226 shares bought by Pender on 26 June.
The following week on 19 March, Wright granted an export license to another Venture Global LNG project, the Cameron Parish 2 (CP2) terminal, which Joe Biden had paused amid widespread protests from climate scientists, environmental groups and local fishers. CP2 has the capacity to produce 28m tonnes of LNG a year, with the company now on track to be the largest supplier of gas to Germany.
Individuals connected to Venture Global spent $860,000 on lobbying on Capitol Hill in 2024, and another $810,000 so far this year, according to Open Secrets, a non-profit campaign financial watchdog. The previous high was $70,000 in 2019. “Both the timing and amount invested raise serious red flags. It does require a subpoena and an investigation,” said Craig Holman, from Public Citizen, an expert on ethics, lobbying and campaign finance rules. All parties deny any wrongdoing.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt: “The media’s continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read. The president has never engaged, and will never engage, in conflicts of interest.”
The Guardian’s requests for comment to Chris Wright at the department of energy, Doug Burgum at the interior department and the transition committee went unanswered.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved.
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