The report aims to address concerns about the Trump administration’s handling of trust income to Venezuela.
Published November 12, 2026
The US State Department has released a report detailing what the US has done with more than $12 billion in revenue from Venezuela’s oil and mineral wealth, nearly a year after the country’s leader Nicolás Maduro was abducted.
The 53-page report released Thursday said the disclosure was part of an effort to “promote transparency and accountability in the management of these funds.”
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In January, U.S. forces stormed Venezuela’s capital Caracas, captured the Maduros and took them to New York City, where they are now facing charges related to drug trafficking and torture.
Venezuela’s then-Vice President Delcy Rodriguez took office after Maduro’s abduction and has since struck an agreement with Washington that gives the United States direct access to profits from exports of oil and other mineral resources from the South American country.
Since ousting President Maduro from power, the Trump administration has sought to directly control who buys natural resources from Venezuela and who profits from their sale.
In January, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order establishing a special bank account to hold the proceeds from these transactions and ultimately distribute them to Venezuela in a controlled manner.
President Trump has put Venezuela at the center of his political discourse, claiming during his campaign for the midterm elections earlier this month that the United States could generate revenue from selling Venezuelan oil. Venezuelan rights activists have expressed concern that the U.S. government places an unusual emphasis on oil revenues and shows little interest in supporting democratic reforms after Maduro is removed.
The report, released Thursday, covers movements into and out of U.S.-controlled accounts from January 3, 2026 to September 30, 2026. The State Department has also contracted with KPMG, a private auditing firm based in Washington, D.C., to investigate the transactions.
During that time, the U.S. received more than $12.26 billion from “verified and approved entities engaged in sanctioned activities” in Venezuela, according to the report. The bulk of that flow came from crude oil and oil-based revenues, but it also included deposits from transactions involving gold, minerals, and fertilizers.
More than $12 billion of that revenue had been paid out as of Sept. 30, with about $169 million remaining in the account, according to the report.
The United States initially opened an account at Qatar National Bank in January to accept funds from entities looking to purchase oil and other minerals licensed from Venezuela. The account was initially credited with about $500 million, and by late January, almost all of it had been distributed to Venezuelan companies, and a separate dedicated account managed by the U.S. Treasury Department was established to handle future transactions.
The checking account, which is managed directly by the U.S. Treasury Department, accepts more than $12 billion in funds from about 20 depositors, whose identities are redacted in the State Department report. About 99% of these funds were related to oil purchases, according to the report.
By the end of September, nearly all of these funds had been distributed to a series of Venezuelan banks and used for foreign exchange interventions, deals in which banks sell those dollars to reduce the amount of local currency and prop up the value of the currency, in this case the Venezuelan bolivar, according to a State Department report.
The report, which is heavily redacted, does not provide details about the ultimate recipients of the more than $12 billion in funds distributed to Venezuela, but it does say that about $9.4 billion went to “legal entities” and $2.9 billion to “individuals.”
