US Holds About $13 Billion of Venezuela's Oil Money With No Clear Account of Where It Goes

The United States has collected roughly $13 billion tied to Venezuela's oil sales, and Washington has offered diverging accounts of where that money is going, the Financial Times reported. The funds come from a country the FT described as shattered by an earthquake, which adds humanitarian weight to the question of who controls the revenue and to what end.

The lack of a consistent explanation is the central issue. Different arms of the US government have described the money's destination in different ways, leaving unclear whether it is held in escrow, directed toward creditors, or applied to other purposes. For a sanctioned oil producer, the way export earnings are intercepted and held has direct consequences for the state's finances and its population.

The case illustrates how far the dollar-based financial system extends US control over the revenue of adversary states. By routing sanctioned oil money through channels Washington controls, the United States can freeze or redirect billions in earnings, a capability that gives sanctions their force.

That same reach is what drives some states to seek alternatives. The more visibly the US can capture and hold another country's oil revenue, the stronger the incentive for producers and their trading partners to build payment systems outside the dollar, a gradual pressure toward the fragmentation of the monetary order.