Russ Dallen

Russell Morris Dallen Jr. or Russ Dallen (January 20, 1963 – September 17, 2021) was an American economist, financial advisor, international lawyer, publisher, and journalist.

He was also president and editor–in–chief of the Venezuela Daily Journal and editor–in–chief of the Latin American Herald Tribune. In high school, he was the editor of a weekly eight-page section of the Sun Herald. In 1981 when he was a senior in high school, Dallen was named an Outstanding Future Leaders at the National Century III Leaders Conference, a scholarship program sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Dallen attended the University of Mississippi where he received a B.A. in economics and political science in 1985.

Dallen served on the editorial board of the Southern literary magazine Oxford American and The Hemispheric Review. He testified before the United States Senate and the Human Rights Commission of the United States House of Representatives. He also addressed the State Department, the National Intelligence Council, the United States Southern Command, and United States Committee on Foreign Relations. He also spoke to the and Council on Foreign Relations and lectured at universities.

Finance Dallen was head of the investment bank Caracas Capital Markets, managing partner at family office Ophiuchus Capital Management, strategic advisor to the exchange-traded Venezuela Opportunity Fund. From 2000 to 2007, he was head of the Latin American office of investment bank Oppenheimer & Co. in Caracas, Venezuela.

In Venezuela, Dallen began pointing out shortages, including being the first to point out most famously the toilet paper shortage —in January 2013 when oil was above $100 a barrel and warning of the economic collapse that would come. At the same time, Dallen was able to double investments of his firm and clients in Harvest Natural Resources (NYSE: HNR) in one month before taking profits and earn a 60% return in 6 months in Venezuelan Koch brothers entity Fertinitro.

In early 2016, Dallen began warning that Venezuela would default on its billions in foreign debt, telling Reuters that "It is a question of when, not if," and noting that "The only thing that could change that is a sharp recovery in oil prices, and/or a bailout from Venezuela's friends in China, Russia or Iran."

Keying on cashflows from China and Russia, Dallen would help discover and publicize that Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA was so short of cash that they had mortgaged 49.9% of their U.S. oil refinery Citgo to Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft and he would later be called upon to testify about Russia's actions before Congress.

The Financial Times in an article titled "Venezuela stopped bond payments in September" credited Dallen with the discovery and proof.

Bloomberg noted that Dallen and his investors were able to profit from his default prediction—for a 300% return when Venezuela and PDVSA were declared in default in November by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA).

Publications

"Overview of European Community Protection of Human Rights, with Some Special References to the UK." Common Market Law. Review 27, 761, 1990. He was a speaker at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law in 2019.

He was a presidential fellows mentor at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. Harold Wallace Rosenthal Fellow for the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Personal life

Dallen married Jeanette Garavito, a Venezuelan lawyer.