Slick Deals: Checking in on Venezuela's Oil Funds

The latest kleptocratic actions by the Trump administration from the week of August 3, 2026

American Kleptocracy and Friends of USAID

Aug 04, 2026

We last checked in on Venezuela in January. What's happened with all of that oil money since then?

Credit: Money background via Shamblen Studios (Unsplash)

In January, US Special Forces captured Nicolás Maduro and Washington took over Venezuela’s oil exports. The idea was that somehow, this would improve the management of Venezuela’s oil. Venezuela would submit monthly budgets to the White House. The US hired auditors to check receipts. Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s new leader, promised the public could trace every oil dollar on a new government website.

So how’s that going?

Well...about $13 billion in oil revenue has moved through the US-supervised arrangement since January, according to the Financial Times. But only about $300 million (about 2%) of it is publicly accounted for.

The Missing Receipts

Executive Order 14373, signed January 9, declared that Venezuelan oil proceeds were sovereign Venezuelan property. The US Department of the Treasury holds the money in a “custodial and governmental capacity.” The US Department of State gives the instructions on disbursement. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), under the Treasury, licensed US firms to market the crude, with proceeds landing in a US account that State and Treasury are supposed to oversee.

State told Congress it hired KPMG to audit the sales. So far, no one has seen a report nor do we have a timeline for when we might. Venezuela’s central bank says it hired its own separate auditor, but hasn’t said who. Additionally, the Venezuelan government’s transparency website, Transparent Sovereignty, shows a single entry: a March fuel-oil sale, no buyer named, no price disclosed.

We would like to be proven wrong that everything is being well-managed, but signs are not promising.

Who’s Getting the Contracts?

US firms were supposed to be able to tap into Venezuela’s oil business. Indeed, they have. As with so many things under the Trump administration, though, it’s not clear that it was the best of the bunch that won the contracts.

In terms of buying and trading the oil:

The first sale went to Vitol in a contract worth $250 million. The senior Vitol trader who worked the deal, John Addison, gave about $6 million to Trump-aligned PACs and sat in on a White House meeting with Trump and oil executives, according to the progressive news site Truth Out. Vitol has been convicted of bribery by the US rather recently, in 2024.
A second contract worth $250 million went to Trafigura, according to reporting by The Washington Post. It may surprise you to know that Trafigura was also convicted of bribery by the US, also in 2024.

Both traders were allowed to sell at least $500 million in Venezuelan crude, which was routed through an offshore account in Qatar. A very unusual arrangement indeed.

In terms of providing security for these operations, major Trump backer Erik Prince’s name has come up as a possible contractor to provide mercenaries to protect oil infrastructure. According to Al Jazeera, he tried something similar in 2019, when he pitched a mercenary operation to President Trump in order to topple Maduro. Prince’s firms are also in talks to win a contract in Haiti now too. (For a list of Prince’s firms’ greatest hits, see here. And as a reminder, Prince is the brother of Trump’s former Secretary of Education Betsey DeVos, both heirs to a massive fortune.)

Meanwhile, in Caracas…

It’s not just the super-wealthy in the US that are benefiting from the upheaval. According to the board of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the country’s national oil company, for every two dollars Venezuela earned selling oil earlier this decade, one dollar was stolen.

The corruption didn’t stop when Maduro did.

The New York Times reported that Carlos Malpica Flores, a nephew of Maduro’s wife and the man several oil officials describe as guardian of the family’s wealth, ran an $11 billion off-the-books export scheme from 2021 to 2022. That accounts for about half of Venezuela’s total oil revenue in those years. The Trump administration sanctioned him in December of 2025, and he lost direct access to crude sales after Maduro’s capture.

But the same article alleges that Flores is still profiting through his oilfield services companies. His friendship with Rodríguez might be why he hasn’t been touched in her broader housecleaning of Maduro loyalists.

Where Oversight Stands

Members of Congress have taken notice. Democrats in the Senate and House have introduced the Venezuela Oil Proceeds Transparency Act (S. 3838 and H.R. 7819). This bill calls for a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit within 30 days of passage and a report to Congress within 90 days of completion. But the bill has not yet attracted Republican support.

Nonetheless, the GAO has opened a review anyway, the first real federal oversight of the arrangement since it started. The GAO is controlled by Congress and has significant independence, so it is less likely to face interference from the executive branch. (Although, in a strange quirk of American politics, the GAO lead, the Comptroller of the United States, is appointed by the president—an idea that both liberal and conservative groups see as very problematic. The next comptroller is up for appointment this year.)

The Bottom Line

In just under seven months, $13 billion in profits moved. Yet only $300 million has been accounted for. The Trump administration awarded contracts to megadonors and firms with recent bribery convictions, all while organized crime continues to profit off the oil business.

Is the US really fighting kleptocracy here? Or are we just making sure that kleptocrats can work together?

Weekly Wins

Senate Unanimously Says No to a Maxwell Pardon

Last week, Congress showed a trace of a spine. The Senate unanimously passed a resolution stating that Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking minors alongside Jeffrey Epstein, should not receive a presidential pardon or any form of clemency. Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen introduced the measure. It passed by unanimous consent, with zero objections from either party. That matters because Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out a pardon for Maxwell, saying only that he’d “take a look at it.” The vote also happened right before a Judiciary Committee hearing on Todd Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General, a pointed reminder to the DOJ that Congress is watching. The resolution is non-binding, but the vote puts every senator on record. And it could make a future pardon a much harder to defend.

Selective Prosecution Collapses in Court

Two flimsy federal cases fell apart this week. Prosecutors dropped a felony charge against Olympic canoeist David Hearn for supposedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Turns out the damage did not come from sabotage at all, but from the botched, rushed installation job of the Trump-aligned company that was given a no-bid contract to make the renovations. Trump had spent weeks blaming “vandals” on Truth Social. The evidence said otherwise.

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors also moved to drop charges against Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California President David Huerta. He was arrested last June for observing an ICE raid. His felony was already downgraded to a misdemeanor months ago. Now even that is going away. Huerta’s lawyers called the case a bid to silence critics. The facts back them up.

Both men were charged fast and loud. And both cases crumbled once anyone looked closely.

Trump’s DOJ Loses 19 Lawsuits in its Voter Data Grab

Out of its lawsuits against 30 states and the District of Columbia, the DOJ is on a serious losing streak. Last Friday, a federal judge dismissed yet another DOJ lawsuit with prejudice. The case sought Illinois' full, unredacted voter database, including driver's license and Social Security numbers. Judge Colleen Lawless ruled the DOJ has no legal authority to seize that data. She was blunt: "Congress did not confer a general auditing power to the DOJ over state election officials." Illinois had already handed over a redacted list. That wasn't enough for the DOJ. The ruling makes 19 straight losses in district court, with zero wins, and came just two days after a similar defeat in New Jersey. Judges appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents have ruled against the DOJ. To date, no court has ever ordered a state to hand over its full, unredacted voter rolls.

Kansas Supreme Court Protects Late-Arriving Ballots

The Kansas Supreme Court rejected Secretary of State Scott Schwab's last-ditch effort to enforce a strict Election Day deadline for mail ballots. The ruling keeps a temporary injunction in place, meaning ballots postmarked by Election Day still count if they arrive within three days. Two justices dissented, but the majority declined to upend the rules right before the state's August 4 primary. Without this ruling, thousands of Kansans could have lost their vote over postal delays completely outside their control.

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Slick Deals: Checking in on Venezuela's Oil Funds

The latest kleptocratic actions by the Trump administration from the week of August 3, 2026

The Missing Receipts

Who’s Getting the Contracts?

Meanwhile, in Caracas…

Where Oversight Stands

The Bottom Line

Weekly Wins

Senate Unanimously Says No to a Maxwell Pardon

Selective Prosecution Collapses in Court

Trump’s DOJ Loses 19 Lawsuits in its Voter Data Grab

Kansas Supreme Court Protects Late-Arriving Ballots

More Links, More Kleptocracy

Build a Protection Racket

Bribes and influence peddling

Cronyism and favoritism

Extorting the private sector

Get Rid of Independent Checks on Power

Executive power grabs

Centralizing executive authority

Targeting civil society and subnational government

Scientific integrity and academic freedom

Drive Division

Driving social division

Control the Media and Suppress Free Speech

Turning media regulators into weapons for political retaliation

Coordinate with Kleptocrats Abroad

Aligning with kleptocrats on the international stage

Manipulate Elections

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?