Where is Venezuela’s oil money?

Podcast · ~38 min · Listen

• Patrick Boyle investigates the disappearance of an estimated $13 billion in Venezuelan oil revenues collected by the US in early 2026, which remains unaccounted for in Caracas, highlighting the vulnerability of a nation’s foreign assets.
• The video details specific cases, including $13 billion in oil money in a Qatari offshore account, $4 billion in Venezuelan gold frozen in the Bank of England, and the court-ordered auction of Citgo’s parent company to an Elliott Management affiliate for nearly $6 billion.
• It explains the legal machinery enabling these actions, such as the alter ego doctrine, sovereign immunity, the Bancec ruling, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, and the “one voice” principle in English law.
• The core warning is that a nation’s wealth held abroad is only secure for as long as foreign courts, banks, and vaults agree that it is, with the question of who legitimately governs Venezuela central to all these disputes.