Venezuela removed 8 tons of central bank gold last week - legislator
CARACAS (Reuters) - At least 8 tons of gold were removed from the Venezuelan central bank’s vaults last week, an opposition legislator and three government sources told Reuters, in the latest sign of President Nicolas Maduro’s desperation to raise hard currency amid tightening sanctions.
The gold was removed in government vehicles between Wednesday and Friday last week when there were no regular security guards present at the bank, Legislator Angel Alvarado and the three government sources said.
“They plan to sell it abroad illegally,” Alvarado said in an interview.
The central bank did not respond to requests for comment.
Alvarado and the government sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say where the central bank was sending the gold. They said the operation took place while central bank head Calixto Ortega was abroad on a trip.
In 2018, 23 tons of mined gold were transported from Venezuela to Istanbul by plane, according to sources and Turkish government data.
The central bank bought part of this gold from primitive gold-mining camps in the south of Venezuela and exported it to Turkey and other countries to finance the purchase of basic food supplies, given widespread shortages, according to more than 30 people with knowledge of the trade.
Some 20 tons of monetary gold were also removed from the central bank’s vaults in 2018, according to the bank’s data, leaving 140 tonnes remaining, the lowest level in 75 years.
Abu Dhabi investment firm Noor Capital said on Feb. 1 that it bought 3 tons of gold on Jan. 21 from the Venezuelan central bank and would not buy more until Venezuela’s situation stabilized. Noor Capital said its purchase was in accordance with “international standards and laws in place” as of that date.
Maduro’s government has been seeking to repatriate some 31 tons of gold in the Bank of England’s vaults on fears it could be caught up in international sanctions on the country.
Will Trudeau Resign After Former AG’s Explosive Testimony?
During a day where three concurrent Congressional hearings dominated the news cycle in the US, the testimony of Canada’s former Attorney General seemed to slip under the radar. But unlike Michael Cohen’s star turn in front of the House Oversight Committee, what former AG Jody Wilson-Raybould shared with lawmakers and the Canadian public actually might cause one head of state’s carefully constructed house of cards to come crashing down - just as campaign season is ramping up.
With roughly eight months left until an election where Canadians will decide whether to stick with - or reject - the progressive agenda of PM Justin Trudeau, a widening corruption scandal is threatening to take down the prime minister’s entire government. Two weeks ago, journalists at the Globe and Mail blew the lid off a scandal involving Trudeau and his closest aides, where the prime minister appeared to pressure Wilson-Raybould, then the attorney general, into offering a DPA to a Quebec-based engineering firm - then fired her when she refused to obey his demands. And after weeks of radio silence, she shared her side of the story during a widely watched (in Canada) Congressional hearing Wednesday afternoon.
Answering questions posed by a conservative MP, Wilson-Raybould said she faced intense political pressure and veiled threats from at least 11 people involved in the government - either the PMO or the Privy Council Office - related to the SNC-Lavalin affair. She also said she was warned directly by Trudeau about the negative consequences should the company face prosecution, according to CBC. One close aide to Trudeau has already resigned over the scandal.
Wilson-Raybould listed the people she had warned about “the inappropriate nature of these conversations” after they “hounded” her about the affair, including Trudeau, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick and the (now-fired) senior senior aide to the prime minister, Gerald Butts.
“For a period of four months from September to December 2018, I experience a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the attorney general of Canada in an inappropriate effort to secure a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with SNC-Lavalin.”
“Within these conversations there were express statements regarding the necessity of interfering in the SNC-Lavalin matter, the potential of consequences, and veiled threats if a DPA was not made available to SNC-Lavalin,” she said.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-27/will-trudeau-resign-after-former-ags-explosive-testimony