June 06, 2019

Anna Murray 

In 2016, Venezuela signed a financing agreement to borrow cash from Deutsche Bank with 20 tons of gold, worthy of $750 million, as collateral. Deutsche Bank closed out the contract 2 years before 2021 and took control of the precious metal because Venezuela failed to pay the interest the second time this year.

Meanwhile, under the support of US and more than 50 countries, Juan Guaido, opposition leader of Venezuela, asked the bank to pay his parallel government the difference in gold price and deposit $120 million into an account out of the reach of President Nicolas Maduro. Under such confusion, Deutsche Bank’s spokesman and the Central Bank’s press official in Venezuela refused to make any comment.

The Latin American country suffers the worst economic crisis these years due to US severe sanctions on its oil exports as well as its gold business. After the US fully supported Juan Guaido as interim president, it was reported that state oil company PDVSA and Citgo, its US subsidiary, had been taken $7 billion of assets away by the US. Maduro’s regime and military forces now can only depend on the dwindling gold holdings.

Photo:Webshot.