Trump's Venezuela oil sell-off sparks corruption concerns

Trump's Venezuela oil sell-off sparks corruption concerns

WASHINGTON, DC – In the weeks since the United States snatched Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration has been selling the country's oil stash, netting millions of dollars and prompting concerns from lawmakers and industry insiders about corruption.

Those concerns will likely surface on Jan. 28 when Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies before a Senate committee about the Trump administration's ongoing involvement in Venezuela.

The Trump administration accused Maduro of heading a vast narcotrafficking network, as it zeroed in on Venezuela this past fall with a massive deployment of military assets and deadly strikes on boats off the country's coast. Now that the South American leader and his wife are jailed pending a federal trial in the United States on related charges, Trump has said his administration will control Venezuela's oil reserves — the largest in the world.

Trump has since unveiled a sweeping $2 billion deal to sell oil from Venezuela's reserves, which are controlled by a state-run company and have been off-limits for years to all American companies but Chevron. Venezuela's oil stockpiles were backed up by the Trump administration's blockade of oil tankers and years of U.S. sanctions.

Trump aims to get Venezuela's oil flowing to American companies, and says the United States will control the proceeds from those sales. Venezuelan oil is already flowing into refineries in Houston, Trump told the New York Post in a Jan. 24 interview.

"Let’s put it this way, they don’t have any oil. We take the oil," he said.

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said Trump wanted to control the oil for "his friends."

"Boy, this would be a coup: the oil industry having full access to the world's largest petroleum reserve," he said, during a Jan. 7 speech before the Senate.

Democrats will likely grill Rubio on the multibillion-dollar oil deal on Jan. 28. Some, such as Murphy, who is on the committee, have already slammed it as murky and ripe for corruption. The administration has so far sold $500 million worth of oil, depositing some of the proceeds in a Qatari bank account controlled at the Trump administration's discretion, sources have told USA TODAY.