India, Jan. 9 -- WASHINGTON, United States, January 9 -In the chaotic week following Nicolas Maduro's arrest, the Trump administration's most influential guide on Venezuela isn't a career diplomat. It's a Florida billionaire whose companies have both profited from and been penalized by the very regime Washington just toppled. Harry Sargeant III, a Republican donor with deep, complicated ties to Venezuela's oil state, is now quietly helping shape America's most sensitive energy pivot as per reports.

Harry Sargeant is a paradox. He's a major GOP donor whose wife gave nearly $300,000 to Trump's campaign. He's an oil dealer who built a business on Venezuelan asphalt for decades. Last spring, the Trump administration revoked his company's lic...