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TRUMP TOOK CONTROL OF ANOTHER COUNTRY’S OIL FORTUNE. WHERE THE HELL
IS THE MONEY?  
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Thom Hartmann
September 16, 2026
Hartmann Report
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_ Trump boasts about billions from Venezuelan oil, but lawmakers are
still fighting to learn where the money is, who controls it, and
who’s getting paid… _

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At any other time in American history, it would end the career of
somebody like Scott Bessent, our limited-intelligence
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Treasury Secretary. It came out yesterday when Illinois Congressman
Sean Casten was questioning him about the “billions of dollars”
that Trump keeps claiming America is “getting” from selling
Venezuelan oil.

Bessent agreed with Trump, saying
[[link removed]] the oil and oil
money we’ve seized from that country is “one of the largest assets
to ever go on the U.S. balance sheet.” Billions and billions of
dollars.

SO CASTEN ASKED HIM A SIMPLE QUESTION: CAN YOU TELL US _WHO_ CONTROLS
THAT MONEY AND _WHERE_ IT IS? CAN YOU CONFIRM “WHETHER OR NOT THOSE
[FUNDS] ARE FLOWING TO U.S. PERSONS?”

BESSENT’S ANSWER
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SINGLE WORD: “NO.” HE AIN’T TALKIN…

Did Trump take the oil and the money from the oil? Bessent refuses to
say. Trump refuses to say. Nobody, in fact, in the Trump regime will
tell us where that money is or who controls it or even who’s making
the money accrued on its interest.

HERE’S WHAT WE DO KNOW:

Three days after Trump kidnapped President Maduro and his wife, he
went on his Nazi-infested social media site and wrote
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that Venezuela’s oil revenues would be controlled by him personally
“as President of the United States.”

Three days after that, he signed an executive order declaring a
“national emergency
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involving that oil so no court or creditor could touch the money,
screwing the bondholders and oil companies to which Venezuela owed
roughly $150 billion.

THEN TRUMP STARTED SELLING THE OIL WE’D SEIZED FROM VENEZUELA. THE
FIRST LOAD, ACCORDING TO REUTERS AND SEMAFOR, WENT TO COMMODITY
TRADING COMPANIES VITOL AND TRAFIGURA FOR ABOUT $500 MILLION, GROUPS
THAT THE WASHINGTON POST SAID BOTH CARRY HISTORIES OF BRIBERY SCHEMES
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TIED TO OIL SALES.

And that money didn’t go to the Treasury account that was described
in Trump’s own executive order. Instead, it went to a bank account
in Qatar
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right after that country’s leaders gave him a $400 million jet. A
senior official explained to Semafor that Qatar was chosen as a
“neutral location” where money “can flow freely” without risk
of seizure.

SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN WAS OUTRAGED, AND TOLD THE WORLD WHAT MOST OF
US WERE THINKING AT THE TIME:

“There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore
account that he controls so that he can sell assets seized by the
American military. That is precisely a move that a corrupt politician
would be attracted to.”

In January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified to the Senate
that $300 million had been sent to Venezuela to cover government
payroll needs and another $200 million was “still sitting” in
Doha. He referred to the entire operation as “novel” and “a
short-term mechanism.”

BUT A MONTH LATER, ENERGY SECRETARY CHRIS WRIGHT SAID ON CNBC
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THAT THE ACCOUNT HAD BEEN CLOSED AND NO MORE MONEY WOULD BE FLOWING TO
OR THROUGH QATAR…AND NOBODY HAS IDENTIFIED WHERE IT WENT, OR WHERE
IT IS, SINCE THEN.

WHERE’S THE MONEY?

House Foreign Affairs committee ranking member Gregory Meeks called it
“an offshore slush fund
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Bessent, questioned by Casten _back in February_
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to say which accounts the Treasury Department was even using, even
though Trump’s executive order had named him/Treasury as the
custodian for the funds. Casten and Senator Chris Van Hollen again
demanded
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to know where the money was in March, and were again stonewalled. And
then again this week.

MEANWHILE, THE PILE OF MONEY IS GROWING, PARTICULARLY GIVEN THE OIL
CRISIS PROVOKED BY TRUMP’S IDIOTIC WAR AGAINST IRAN. USING BLOOMBERG
TANKER-TRACKING DATA, THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS PUBLISHED AN
APRIL ESTIMATE
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THAT:

“In the first four months of the United States exerting control over
Venezuela’s oil exports, almost one hundred million barrels of oil
worth an estimated $8 billion have flowed through a process marked by
no transparency and minimal oversight.”

A State Department official testified to Congress back in April that
around $3 billion had gone back to Venezuela, but Trump boasted
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in July that the US had sold more than $13 billion in stolen
Venezuelan oil and suggested he could divert those funds to the
American military or anywhere else he wanted.

BACK IN JUNE, MARCO RUBIO TRIED TO ASSUAGE CONGRESS’ CONCERNS BY
SAYING THAT ACCOUNTING FIRM KPMG “AUDITS EVERY DISBURSEMENT.” BUT
WHEN THE LIBERTARIAN REASON MAGAZINE DUG INTO IT IN AUGUST THEY FOUND
THAT NEITHER THE AGREEMENTS NOR THE AUDITS HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED
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And the so-called “Transparent Sovereignty” website the Venezuelan
government set up to show the world its oil transactions only lists
one single sale. Apparently, Trump is not even telling them what
he’s done with their oil, or where their money went.

AND IT’S NOT JUST OIL. IN MARCH, INTERIOR SECRETARY DOUG BURGUM FLEW
A PLANELOAD OF AMERICAN MINING EXECUTIVES TO CARACAS AND CAME HOME
BRAGGING ABOUT HAVING MADE OFF WITH OVER $100 MILLION
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IN GOLD. HE SET UP A DEAL TO SELL IT TO REPORTEDLY BRIBE-FRIENDLY
TRAFIGURA WITH THE PROCEEDS GOING INTO, WELL, NOBODY KNOWS WHERE.

THIS IS AN OLD SCRIPT THAT TRUMP APPEARS TO BE FOLLOWING HERE, ONE
MANY CORRUPT PETROSTATES PIONEERED LONG AGO.

For example, in 2014 Nigeria’s central bank governor, Lamido Sanusi,
accidentally revealed to his Senate that roughly $20 billion in oil
revenue had never made it into the national treasury. President
Goodluck Jonathan’s response was to fire him
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and call the money a “phantom.” When PriceWaterhouseCoopers
finally audited the books, it found at least $1.48 billion
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was simply gone.

I’VE DONE INTERNATIONAL RELIEF WORK IN SOME OF THE MOST CORRUPT
NATIONS IN THE WORLD, BEEN OFFERED BRIBES AND THREATENED FOR NOT
TAKING THEM, AND THE PATTERN I’M SEEING HERE IS EERILY FAMILIAR.
THEY NEVER ANNOUNCE THE LOOTING; THEY JUST STOP LETTING YOU KNOW WHERE
ANYTHING WENT OR WHO ENDED UP WITH IT. MOST PEOPLE FIGURE THAT IT MUST
BE OKAY SINCE IT’S NOT BEING REPORTED OR DISCUSSED, AND THE
CONVERSATION DIES AWAY.

So, here we are. Trump:

— announced that he’d taken the oil,— then that he’d taken the
money from the sale of the oil and put it in a bank with the country
that had given him a free 747 jet,— hired traders with bribery
records,— refused to publish the contracts,— put his own
hand-picked cabinet members in charge of both the disbursements and
oversight, and— then sent Bessent to Congress to say, “No” when
asked if we could please, please know where it’s all gone.

MEANWHILE, REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS SEEM TO HAVE DEVELOPED A SUDDEN
CASE OF LOCKJAW.

Congressmen Casten and Joaquin Castro have introduced into the House
the _Venezuela Oil Proceeds Transparency Act_ to force the GAO to
audit the Qatar account and whatever’s followed it. Republicans
refuse to let it out of committee, and Mike Johnson won’t give it a
chance on the floor.

This is not how democracies are supposed to work, a message we should
all convey to our elected representatives at 202-224-3121.

Pass it along.

_Thom Hartmann is a NY Times bestselling author of 34 books in 17
languages & nation's #1 progressive radio host. Psychotherapist,
international relief worker. Politics, history, spirituality,
psychology, science, anthropology, pre-history, culture, and the
natural world._

* Venezuela
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* Oil
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* Big Money
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* Donald Trump
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* 'Hidden Figures'
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