The United States government received and disbursed more than $12 billion in revenue from Venezuela’s natural resource exports during the first nine months of 2026, according to a confidential report by the global financial services firm KPMG that was reviewed by The New York Times and reported on 10 November.

The report describes the activity of the “Venezuela Custody Account”, set up by the US Treasury to manage the flow of Venezuelan export revenues after US forces removed former President Nicolás Maduro from power in January. The account was first based in Qatar and was moved to Citibank in New York in late January. Between 3 January, the date of the US military intervention, and the end of September, the account received $12.26 billion in deposits. By 30 September, the report’s cut-off date, its balance stood at about $170 million.

Most of the money was sent back quickly

Most of the funds were distributed back to Venezuela shortly after they were received, according to the report. The speed of those disbursements lends some credence to previous claims by US officials that Washington serves as a mere custodian of the wealth Venezuela derives from its natural resources, principally oil, the Times reported. The sale of crude oil accounted for the vast majority of the money sent into the account.

But the report does not present the full picture of Venezuelan export revenues. It is unclear whether the money stayed in the country once it was returned, or who the ultimate recipients were. According to the Times’ account of the report, a majority of the money sent back to Venezuela from the custody account — $11.7 billion — was used to prop up the country’s national currency. A Venezuelan financial consultancy, Sintesis Financiera, separately estimates that the Venezuelan government spent $12.3 billion on foreign currency auctions in the first nine months of 2026.

A report written before the midterms

KPMG compiled the report on behalf of the US government, and it was written just days before the midterm elections. The document is the most detailed account yet of the financial control the United States has exercised over Venezuela’s natural resource revenues since January, when Washington took charge of marketing the country’s oil exports.

The arrangement has been a focus of scrutiny in Congress, where lawmakers have pressed the administration for a full accounting of the oil money. A quarterly audit by KPMG was promised in April, but no audit findings have entered the public record. The Washington Examiner’s summary of the Times reporting and Gizmodo’s account of the KPMG findings both stress the same gap: the report shows how much money passed through the custody account, but not where it finally ended up.