Paul Singer, the founder and co-CEO of Elliott Investment Management (formerly Elliott Management), is widely known for his hedge fund’s aggressive “vulture fund” tactics. These involve buying distressed debt—often sovereign bonds from countries or debt from struggling companies—at steep discounts (sometimes pennies on the dollar) and then pursuing full repayment (plus interest and fees) through relentless litigation, often in favorable U.S. courts. Critics label this predatory, as it can exacer

Billionaire hedge-fund boss Paul Singer stands to profit massively from the U.S. takeover of Venezuela’s oil industry. In November 2025 — less than two months before President Trump’s military operation that kidnapped Nicolás Maduro — Singer’s firm Elliott Investment Management purchased Citgo — Venezuela’s U.S. refining arm — at a deeply discounted $5.9 billion court-ordered sale, even though the asset’s market value is widely estimated at $11–$18 billion. The forced sale was engineered by sanc