Our friends the Turks: Hiding Venezuela's gold for Maduro?

American Thinker ^ | 02/11/2019 | Monica Showalter

[SeekAndFind]

Yes, we expect places such as Russia and Iran to stick up for Venezuela's hellhole regime, along with its fellow Latin socialist hellholes Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.  But Bloomberg is reporting that U.S. NATO ally Turkey seems to be all in for helping Nicolás Maduro spirit the nation's gold out of the country for his potentially comfortable retirement.  The picture emerges of a dictator about to make off with the light bulbs on the way out. div class="article_body bottom mrf-hidden">

Back around when Maduro was eating that big steak dinner in Istanbul in front of Venezuelans for an Instagram post, here's what had been really going on, as Bloomberg reported:

Two months after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro visited his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, a mysterious company called Sardes sprang into existence.

The firm started business with a bang in January of 2018, when it imported about $41 million worth of gold from Venezuela, the first such transaction between the two countries in records that go back 50 years.  The next month its volume more than doubled, with Sardes transporting almost $100 million worth to Turkey.

By November, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing sanctions on Venezuelan gold — after sending an envoy to warn Turkey off the trade, Sardes had shuttled $900 million of the precious metal out of the country.  Not bad for a company with just $1 million in capital, according to regulatory filings in Istanbul.

The country has a history of helping embattled dictatorships, such as Iran's, evade sanctions through the use of its financial system.  Iran uses gold transactions to evade Western sanctions and continue its business-as-usual dictatorship.  So, at a minimum, Maduro is likely using the gold transactions in Turkey to evade U.S. sanctions.

[SeekAndFind]

But now there's a lot of talk of Maduro and his creepy drug-dealing cronies fleeing the country, and not surprisingly, Turkey's name is coming up.

[PGR88]

You know you are in trouble when you have to trust Turks to hold your gold for you.

I give them 10% chance of getting it back

[mosesdapoet]

FYI

[Major Matt Mason]

They might be hiding Khashoggi, too.

[CoastWatcher]

The Swiss banks held NAZI gold to their profit, when the country failed... The upside to secret accounts.

[Lurkinanloomin]

The Turks are not our friends.

Erdogan has dreams of being the sultan of a new caliphate.

Muslims can pretend to be your friend but they are forbidden by their religion from really being friends with infidels.

[Socon-Econ]

If Trump hadn’t allowed himself to be maneuvered into trying to appease his Russia-Russia-Russia opponents by getting involved in the Crimea (”Look, I really am againt Russia”), he probably could have talked Putin out of helping Venezuela. Maybe it’s not too late for him to try.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Sounds like a job for Kelly’s Heroes.

[Texas Fossil]

Thanks for the ping.

[Texas Fossil]

More Erdo threats>

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[SunkenCiv]

The Three Amigos

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan meet in Sochi, Russia November 22, 2017. (photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL METZEL/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS)