US returns over $12 billion in oil proceeds to Venezuela since Maduro's ouster, report says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration says it has returned more than $12 billion, or almost 99%, of the revenue obtained from the sales of Venezuelan oil since it ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro in January.

In a report released Thursday by the State Department, the accounting firm KPMG said the sales of Venezuelan crude, along with minor amounts of gold, minerals and fertilizer, produced $12.26 billion. Almost all of the money has been returned to Venezuela under the terms of a broad energy deal reached with the country's interim authorities, according to the report.

As of Sept. 30, the end of the 2026 budget year, $168.6 million remained in an escrow account managed by the U.S. Treasury Department, the report said.

Under the terms of the deal, Venezuelan crude is sold on the open market, with proceeds going into the U.S.-managed account. Venezuelan officials then seek approval for those funds to be returned to the country to pay for infrastructure and humanitarian needs.

The report offers a window into the Venezuelan government’s finances since the U.S. captured Maduro — bringing him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges — and took effective control of the country’s dilapidated oil industry.

The bulk of the more than $12 billion in oil revenue collected by the U.S. through September was disbursed to individuals and businesses in Venezuela through foreign exchange transactions with commercial banks in the country.

However, some $133 million was channeled to directly pay for services or supplies needed by the Venezuelan government, the report showed.

U.S.-approved transactions include $5 million for Miami-based law firm Greenberg Traurig, nearly $24 million for dialysis and coal-mining equipment, and $8.7 million to settle Venezuela’s debts for vaccine procurements with the Pan-American Health Organization, it said.

The report redacts the names of the 20 companies that purchased oil and gold during the first nine months of 2026.

Still, each had to go through vetting by the U.S. government for compliance with sanctions and money-laundering controls — a sharp break from past practice when Venezuela’s government faced little scrutiny in the management of its oil funds.

Goodman reported from Miami.

FILE - A man rides past an operating oil pumpjack in Cabimas, Venezuela, Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

FILE - Facilities at the Pralca petrochemical plant are seen in Santa Rita, Venezuela, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday heaped praise on Mississippi's Sen.-elect Scott Colom for courting some of his hardcore MAGA supporters in the final days of the midterm election campaign, a rare example of the Republican president showing admiration for a Democrat.

When the president traveled to Corinth, Mississippi, last month to campaign for incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, Trump denigrated Colom as a “Marxist radical," a “fake” and a “shameless phony who pretends to be a moderate."

But on Thursday, during an appearance on Stephen A. Smith's “Straight Shooter” podcast, Trump acknowledged that Colom demonstrated chutzpah by showing up to the Trump rally to mingle with some of the Republican president's staunchest “Make America Great Again” supporters.

“I heard it the other day, where I had a rally there, and we had lines that went 10 miles long, and he campaigned on that line, telling everybody on the line what a good job he did,” Trump said of Colom, a 43-year-old local prosecutor who capitalized on the electorate's discontent with the economy in his successful underdog campaign. “I give him a lot of credit for that.”

Colom had walked along the lineup of Trump supporters waiting to get into the Corinth rally, introducing himself and asking about their concerns.

The move gained widespread media attention, stealing the spotlight from Trump's barnstorming in Mississippi, a state Republicans had expected to easily win.

It also tracked with Colom's strategy throughout the campaign of criticizing Trump’s policies — especially the Iran war that drove up gas prices and tariffs that caused headaches for Mississippi farmers — without taking personal jabs at the president or people who voted for him. Colom had sought to portray Hyde-Smith as a nonentity in Washington, while vowing that he would look out for the interests of people in his state.

The Associated Press called the tight race in Colom’s favor on Wednesday after local officials spent several days processing absentee and provisional ballots, which are called affidavit ballots in Mississippi.

With the win, Colom will become the state's first Black U.S. senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction.

Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom gestures at an election event in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)