Letter to GAO requesting an audit of the Venezuela fund

… $500 million, had been deposited in a Qatari bank account owned by Venezuela but controlled by the U.S.5 Secretary Rubio acknowledged plans for a retrospective audit of a $300 million payment that has already been sent to the Government of Venezuela to pay the salaries of public sector workers. On February 4, 2026, during testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that no formal audit agreement was in place, but his agency plans to engage outside auditors to review future payments.6 This lack of a defined oversight mechanism, combined with the arrangement's significant scale and its national security and foreign policy implications, warrants independent congressional oversight. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has since said that Venezuelan oil proceeds are no longer being routed through the account set up in Qatar, but are now going directly to accounts …