California v. Vitol Settlement: Is the Venmo Email Real?

If you received an email from Venmo, Zelle, or PayPal telling you to accept $21.65 from the “California v. Vitol Settlement Administrator,” it is real. The California Attorney General’s office publicly confirmed on May 9, 2025 that the Venmo email tied to the California v. Vitol settlement is a legitimate payment, not a phishing scam.¹ The money is your share of a $37.5 million restitution fund from a case the state brought against gasoline traders accused of manipulating Southern California fuel prices after a 2015 refinery explosion.

How to Tell the Email Is the Real One

The legitimate Venmo message reads: “This payment represents your share of the California v. Vitol Settlement. More information visit vlc.calgaslitigation.com.” Some versions include a blue circle with a Venmo link labeled “Accept Money from California v. Vitol Settlement Administrator.”² The settlement website address, vlc.calgaslitigation.com, is the one the state has used throughout the case.³

A few things worth checking before you accept:

The amount should be $21.65. That is the per-claimant figure after the $37.5 million restitution pool was divided equally among more than one million valid claimants.⁴
The payment method should match what you selected on your claim form: Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, or paper check.⁵
Payments started going out in late April 2025, so an email dated roughly from then onward fits the real timeline.¹

If any of those details are off, if the sender is pushing for login credentials, or if you are being asked for a Social Security number or bank password, treat it as suspicious. The real payment only requires you to accept funds in the app you chose.

Why You’re Getting $21.65

You are getting the email because, at some point before January 8, 2025, you submitted a claim through vlc.calgaslitigation.com. The claim form asked you to confirm that you purchased gasoline between February 20, 2015 and November 10, 2015 in one of ten Southern California counties: Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, or Imperial.⁶ If you filed that claim, your payment is one of the ones now going out.

A lot of the confusion traces back to the gap in time. Many people filed in late 2024, forgot about it, and then received a Venmo notification months later for an amount small enough to look like a scam lure. The AG’s office stepped in with the May 9 statement precisely because so many recipients were not connecting the payment to a claim they had made or to a case about events from a decade earlier.⁷

What the Payment Is Compensating You For

The underlying case, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court as People of California v. Vitol Inc. et al., alleged that traders at Vitol Inc. and SK Energy Americas Inc. manipulated the spot market price of CARBOB gasoline blendstocks after the February 18, 2015 explosion at the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance.⁸ California’s gasoline spot market relies on voluntary reporting of trades to the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), which publishes a daily benchmark that flows into wholesale and retail prices across the state. Prosecutors alleged the firms selectively reported trades to push that benchmark higher, inflating what drivers paid at the pump.⁹

Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the $50 million settlement on July 10, 2024. Of that, $37.5 million was set aside as restitution for California residents under the Cartwright Act, and $12.5 million went to the Attorney General’s office for antitrust and consumer protection enforcement under the Unfair Competition Law.¹⁰ Vitol and SK did not admit any wrongdoing or liability. Vitol stated when the suit was filed that its actions were “consistent with customary market practice and fully compliant with all applicable laws.”¹¹

Your $21.65 is your pro rata slice of the $37.5 million restitution fund after costs, split evenly across every valid claim that came in by the deadline.⁴

If You Didn’t File a Claim

The claim deadline was January 8, 2025.³ If you never submitted one, you are not on the payment list, and a Venmo email arriving now with your name on it is a reason to be more cautious, not less. Legitimate payments went only to claimants who filed through the official site.

Any funds that go unclaimed, including from paper checks that are never cashed, are designated for a “cy pres” award to a University of California or California State University study aimed at developing tools to detect and deter future gasoline market manipulation.¹² In other words, money left on the table does not revert to the defendants.

If You Filed But Haven’t Been Paid

The settlement website vlc.calgaslitigation.com is the official hub for the case and the same address referenced in the real Venmo message.² If you filed a valid claim and selected an electronic payment but have not seen one, that site is where to check status. If you chose a paper check, the funds will not reach you by Venmo or Zelle regardless of what any email says.

1
Silicon Valley. If You Get a Gas Settlement Email From Venmo, It’s Legit, California Says
2
Pasadena Star-News. If You Get a Gas Settlement Email From Venmo, It’s Legit, California Says
3
Desert Sun. File Claim for California Gas Settlement
4
Desert Sun. California Gas Gouging Lawsuit Settlements Distributed
5
Desert Sun. File Claim for California Gas Settlement
6
ABC7 News. Californians May Be Eligible for Gas Settlement Payment
7
OC Register. If You Get a Gas Settlement Email From Venmo, It’s Legit, California Says
8
ClassAction.org. Amended Complaint, People of California v. Vitol Inc. et al.
9
NAAG. People of California v. Vitol, Inc. et al.
10
ClassAction.org. Settlement Agreement, People of California v. Vitol Inc. et al.
11
NBC Bay Area. California Attorney General Announces Legal Action for Alleged Gas Price Manipulation
12
ClassAction.org. Declaration of Michael Jorgenson, California v. Vitol Inc.