A confidential KPMG report reviewed by The New York Times says a U.S.-controlled account received $12.26 billion from Venezuelan exports between January 3 and September 30, 2026. Most of the money was sent back to Venezuela, but the report does not trace who ultimately received dollars distributed through currency auctions.

KPMG prepared the report for the U.S. government. The account, set up by the Treasury Department after Nicolás Maduro was ousted, was first based in Qatar and moved to Citibank in New York in late January. It held about $170 million at the end of September and had earned about $12 million in interest.

Washington approved each release

Venezuela’s central bank requested money from the account. U.S. officials checked those requests against financial-integrity criteria, and officials from the State and Treasury departments had to approve every transaction. The report describes a system in which Washington had the final say over when funds were released and who received them.

The largest use of the money sent back was to support the bolivar, Venezuela’s currency. The report says $11.7 billion went through foreign-currency auctions run by commercial banks. Venezuelan consultancy Sintesis Financiera separately estimated that the government spent $12.3 billion on such auctions during the same nine-month period.

U.S. officials also transferred about $130 million to pay Venezuelan government bills abroad, mostly debts to other governments and international organizations. The report does not specify which bills were paid.

The account captures only part of the trade

Crude oil supplied most of the account’s deposits. Smaller sums came from minerals and fertilizer, including about $100 million that commodities firm Trafigura deposited for a Venezuelan gold purchase. Trafigura and another commodities trader, Vitol, together accounted for 61% of deposits by the end of September. The report says both firms acquired exclusive rights to sell Venezuelan oil after the U.S. attack and continued to dominate the trade as the number of buyers grew.

The $12.26 billion does not represent all Venezuelan export revenue. Oil companies Chevron and NABEP use other financial arrangements for at least some of their sales, while much of the country’s gold continues to go to the Middle East through informal channels. In October, NABEP began sending oil to the United States under a deal requiring it to give the U.S. government 35% of its shares and 20% of its production at below-market rates.

The KPMG report does not identify the final recipients of dollars sold through the auctions or establish whether the transferred money remained in Venezuela. Earlier New York Times reporting indicated that a large share of auction dollars went to a small group of agribusinesses and consumer companies, while many smaller firms struggled to obtain foreign currency for investment.

Oversight is now a political issue

U.S. forces removed Maduro in January, and the Trump administration installed an interim government tasked with opening Venezuela’s oil industry to U.S. investment. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said that corruption and foreign middlemen took most of Venezuela’s oil revenue before Maduro’s removal; the KPMG report documents the U.S. role in approving transactions after it.

KPMG prepared the report days before the U.S. midterm elections. Democrats, who won control of both chambers of Congress, had pledged to seek more transparency on Washington’s Venezuela policy and are due to gain additional oversight power in January. Aides to Democratic lawmakers told The New York Times that their offices planned to keep pressing the administration for explanations of its anti-corruption efforts.