Reps. Castro, Meeks, Bera Demand Trump Administration Release Overdue Audit of Venezuelan Oil Fund

… <p><strong>WASHINGTON, DC – </strong>Reps. Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Gregory W. Meeks (NY-05), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Ami Bera, M.D. (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific, demanded Secretary Marco Rubio release the results of long-promised audits of the Foreign Government Deposit Funds, the account established after the Trump Administration seized Venezuelan oil revenues.</p> <p><strong>The State Department made a clear commitment to Congress and has not kept it, the Members wrote to Rubio, </strong>“Senior Bureau Official Michael Kozak confirmed that KPMG has been commissioned as an independent auditor to review transactions flowing through this account. Mr. Kozak indicated that audits would be conducted on at least a quarterly basis and that the review would be retrospective in scope, covering the full period since the fund’s establishment, including the period prior to KPMG’s formal engagement. He committed to following up with the Committee on the anticipated release date of the first report.” <strong>That report has not materialized.</strong></p> …