Venezuela has reportedly redirected billions of dollars from oil revenues and state funds to Iran over the past two decades, which were used in the Persian country’s nuclear programs. The information comes from the conservative Spanish newspaper ABC. The newspaper cites Venezuelan investigators and former authorities as sources, who shared the published report with US prosecutors and the White House.
The report maintains that projects and funds explicitly linked to Iran total around US$4.69 billion in the period, and that another US$3.13 billion would have been diverted indirectly from a China-Venezuela fund.
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The text says that the South American country circumvented international sanctions using Venezuelan state institutions, including binational funds, public companies, shell banks and industrial projects with little or no real production.
Also according to the newspaper, American authorities are analyzing the findings as they consider expanding charges against members of the Cartel de los Soles, a drug trafficking group designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the Donald Trump government in November 2025.
A former Venezuelan official cited in the report that the newspaper had access to described a triangulation scheme involving China, Venezuela and Iran. Through this scheme, funds from sales of Iranian oil to China, frozen by sanctions, would have been directed by Venezuela under the pretext of loans, but which did not function as conventional financing.
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The report states that a portion of Venezuela’s oil revenue, including credit lines from China, was redirected both to Iran’s state-owned companies and to entities linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, contributing to Iran’s nuclear program – in addition to its network of armed allies.
These documents, according to the ABC newspaper, show that Venezuela has become a platform for Iranian influence in Latin America, including financial channels linked to the armed groups Hezbollah and Hamas.
