After seizing control of Venezuela's oil exports in the wake of its January 2026 capture of President Nicolas Maduro, the Trump administration has taken in roughly $13 billion selling that oil, according to a Financial Times analysis reported July 22, 2026. Only about $300 million of it can be publicly traced back to Venezuela.
The administration said the proceeds would be used “for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people,” and the State Department has claimed “billions of dollars have been disbursed to the Venezuelan economy” with “financial monitoring... under way.” The FT found no evidence of oil money reaching Venezuelans; the country's first-quarter GDP was its lowest in five years, even as oil is nearly a quarter of its economy, and one month after two devastating earthquakes.
The money's handling has been opaque. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress in June that the sales are audited by KPMG and the money sits in a Citibank account; the administration initially routed the first $500 million into a U.S.-controlled account in Qatar before setting up a Treasury account. A State Department witness testified in April that about $3 billion had been authorized for disbursement to Venezuela but could not say how much remained under U.S. control.
The demands for an accounting are bipartisan. Rep. Joaquin Castro said Congress had been “kept in the dark” and that “Trump's invasion of Venezuela has been about oil, power, and graft from the very beginning.” Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar also called on Trump to disclose the transactions, citing “the importance of transparency over where the money is going.” Sen. Adam Schiff introduced the Venezuela Oil Proceeds Transparency Act, which would require a GAO audit reported to Congress within 90 days.
On July 27, Trump himself said the U.S. had sold more than $13 billion of Venezuelan oil since Maduro's capture, while still not accounting for where the proceeds went.
Update (September 19, 2026): three Senate ranking members wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on September 17 demanding an accounting. Ron Wyden of Finance, Elizabeth Warren of Banking and Sheldon Whitehouse of Environment and Public Works wrote that the arrangement “raises concerns that the Administration may use its control over the revenues to direct billions in funds without congressional authorization or approval,” and that “it is unclear how your Departments are conducting due diligence or otherwise taking preventive steps before disbursing these funds.” Their office called it an oil revenue slush fund for Trump officials.
They also raised something new: Treasury's decision to suspend enforcement of a U.S. anti-money-laundering law for transactions in Venezuela for six months, which the senators say opens the door to business between the U.S. government and criminal and corrupt entities. That characterization is the senators'; the Treasury document is described below.
On the audits Rubio described to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in June, when he said KPMG was being paid from the blocked Citibank account to audit “every single expenditure,” the senators write that those audits “have not been made public... nor is it clear that any audits have occurred at all.”
Update (October 2, 2026): The Treasury document is a FinCEN “Statement of Enforcement Policy in Support of Venezuela's Economic Recovery and Earthquake Relief Efforts,” dated July 27, 2026 and tied to Treasury's general licenses for Venezuela and to the June 24 earthquakes. In it FinCEN “hereby commits to not take any supervisory action, including citing a violation of law, or pursue any enforcement action against any U.S. financial institution related to BSA Requirements as a result of providing authorized financial services in Venezuela,” for services provided from July 27, 2026 through January 29, 2027. It covers the Bank Secrecy Act and the other statutes FinCEN administers, not one law, and applies only to banks that already have compliant programs, have had no final Bank Secrecy Act enforcement action in the past 24 months and stay within sanctions rules; knowing or willful violations are excluded. The Federal Reserve, FDIC, NCUA and OCC issued a similar joint statement on July 31. The senators' letter describes it as Treasury saying “it would not enforce U.S. anti-money laundering law for transactions involving persons or entities in Venezuela for six months.” The Charity & Security Network, which supports the measure, notes that “FinCEN's statement is not an exemption from the BSA” but “a temporary policy of enforcement forbearance.” The policy applies to private U.S. financial institutions; the document does not mention government transactions.