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Where Is Venezuela's 366 Tonnes Of Gold?
Where Is Venezuela's 366 Tonnes Of Gold?
* Where is Venezuela's 366 tonnes of gold?
* Does Venezuela still control and own unencumbered it’s own gold reserves?

Former President Hugo Chavez and a London Good Delivery Gold Bar (400 oz)
* Is any of the country's gold encumbered, loaned or leased to Goldman Sachs or other banks?
* Bank of America economist on visit to Venezuelan central bank last week was allowed to view the bank's gold vault and the gold repatriated by Former President Hugo Chavez
* Is there a possibility of this given the Venezuelan economy's weak position?
* An arbitration court of the World Bank ruled that Venezuela needs to immediately repay $740 million to US mining company 'Gold Reserve'.
* Repayment is connected to Venezuela having terminated Gold Reserve's gold and copper mining project in 2009 as part of Chavez's nationalisation of energy and mining projects
* This ruling could set a precedent for other companies to seek compensation from Venezuelan government during a time in which Venezuelan economy is weak and heavily indebted
* Venezuela's international credit ratings will now be in an even worse state, as will its international bond servicing situation
* Chinese have also lent to Venezuela in return for ongoing deliveries of oil. Could Venezuela now need to mobilise more of its gold again to help finance its debts? Will China seek to use its considerable financial and economic power to build a stronger economic and political relationship with Venezuela?
* The confiscation also highlights the risks to precious metals mining companies operating in politically unstable countries and the stock specific risk of investing in mining shares

Former President Hugo Chavez and a London Good Delivery Gold Bar (400 oz)
Venezuela's gold reserves are back in focus after Francisco Rodríguez, a Bank of America economist, revealed in a client note yesterday that while on a visit to the Central Bank of Venezuela last week, his party was given a tour of the central bank's underground gold vault in Caracas and allowed to view the bank's considerable gold holdings.
This includes the sizeable quantities of Venezuela's gold reserves that were very publically repatriated back to Caracas by President Chavez in 2011 and 2012.
Rodríguez covers the economies of Venezuela, Columbia and Peru on behalf of Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), and is a native of Venezuela, having also previously been head of Venezuela's Congressional Budget Office.
Rodríguez was in Caracas last week for meetings with government and central bank officials including Nelson Merentes, the president of the country's central bank, the Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV).
According to the latest figures published by the World Gold Council (WGC), Venezuela holds 367.6 tonnes of gold in its reserves, representing 70.6% of its official reserves of foreign exchange and gold.
At current market prices, the official gold holdings are worth nearly $14.5 billion. Venezuela is one of the few large holders of gold whose gold holdings represent such a high percentage of total foreign exchange and gold reserves, the other countries being the US, Germany, Italy, France and Portugal.
Unlike the US, Germany and Italy, and possibly Portugal, Venezuela actually has the majority of its gold in its own vaults and not stored abroad. As to whether any of Venezuela's gold reserves are leased, loaned, collateralised or otherwise encumbered is another question.
In August 2011, the Venezuelan government surprised the gold market when it announced that it would seek to repatriate, at short notice, 160 tonnes of its foreign held gold reserves back to Venezuela for safekeeping. The government also revealed at that time where its gold was located and in what form it was held.
Celebrations as Venezuela’s gold is repatriated to Caracas in 2011
Of the 366 tonnes held at that time, 154 tonnes was already stored in Venezuela, 99 tonnes were in custody at the Bank of England, 12 tonnes in custody with the Bank of International Settlements, and 17 tonnes in custody with JP Morgan. Another 82 tonnes of gold was held in term deposits with a group of bullion banks consisting of HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered, the Bank of Nova Scotia and BNP Paribas.
Gold on term deposit earns interest for the central bank but the bullion banks that either accepted the original deposit or took over an existing term deposit would likely have sold or lent the gold in the market. Yet, they would be obliged to return the same amount of gold when the Venezuelans requested that it be repatriated.
The Venezuelan significant repatriation request, in the summer of 2011 may have been a contributing factor to gold's strong price appreciation at that time, as market participants were forced to find 160 tonnes of physical gold bullion at short notice.
The 160 tonnes of gold was transported back to Caracas with much fanfare in a series of flights from late 2011 to early 2012, with the last flight carrying 14 tonnes of gold from Paris. The fact that this gold was sourced in Paris suggests the possibility that it was sourced from the Banque de France, meaning that the Banque de France may also have been involved in helping to secure the necessary physical to transfer to Venezuela.
Wherever the repatriated gold came from, it is now residing in a vault in Caracas.
Before the 2011/2012 repatriation, Venezuela held 211 tonnes of its gold reserves abroad. After bringing back 160 tonnes, this still leaves 51 tonnes outside the country. This remaining foreign stored gold is, according to Bank of America’s Francisco Rodríguez now held at the Bank of England.
Rodríguez also revealed that the gold held in Banco Central de Venezuela vault is in approximately 5 smallish compartments, and that in his view, all the gold that would be expected to be in the vault is in fact in the vault.
This would be about 316 tonnes of gold, which is just over 25,000 good delivery gold bars. With 5 compartments, that would be about 5,000 bars per compartment.
In November 2013, Bloomberg revealed that both Goldman Sachs and Bank of America had proposed loan deals to Venezuela. Bank of America's proposal was said to involve the bank acting as an intermediary to facilitate up to $3 billion in payments for Venezuelan companies seeking US dollars.
Goldman Sach's proposal was said by Bloomberg to involve a loan or swap of $1.68 billion in US dollars but collateralised by $1.85 billion of the Venezuelan central bank’s gold. That would have been about 47 tonnes of gold at the time.
Banco Central de Venezuela denied that it was considering the Goldman Sachs deal, but its unclear if this swap was ever implemented.
If it was, then part of the Banco Central de Venezuela's gold is currently spoken for. This would more likely be gold stored at the Bank of England than in Caracas.
With the Venezuelan economy remaining weak and Venezuelan bonds dropping sharply in value, it may be just a matter of time before Venezuela needs to use some of its gold for borrowing purposes.
Last week, S&P cut Venezuela’s credit rating from B - to CCC+. S&P said that they “assign CCC+ ratings in instances where we assess that issuers face at least a one-in-two likelihood of default over the next two years.”
Hedge funds are said to have started looking at Venezuela’s debt with a view to possible default.
On Monday in other gold developments in Venezuela, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an arbitration court of the World Bank for investment disputes, ruled that Venezuela needs to immediately repay $740 million to a US mining company called 'Gold Reserve'. This repayment is connected to Venezuela having terminated Gold Reserve's Las Brisas gold concession project in 2009 as part of the then President Hugo Chavez's nationalisation of Venezuelan energy and mining projects.
This ICSID ruling could now set a precedent for other companies to seek compensation from the Venezuelan government during a time in which Venezuelan economy remains weak and heavily indebted. The ruling and earlier confiscation also highlights the stock specific risk inherent in precious metals mining stocks and the risks that these companies face when operating in politically unstable countries.
As the Venezuelan currency and bond market lurches into another possible crisis, it looks like the large international investment banks are waiting to provide increased financing or restructuring while the hedge funds look to profit on the sovereign debt.
The Chinese also supply financing to Venezuela on the understanding of getting continuous oil deliveries in return. Just last weekend the Joint Chinese - Venezuela Fund got an inflow of $2 billion from China to help with Venezuelan infrastructure and housing spending.
With China on one side and US banks on the other, it will be interesting to see who ends up financing the lions share of any needed Venezuelan sovereign financing packages.
Venezuela’s gold reserves may then come into play in some way or another.
by Ronan Manly , Edited by Mark O’Byrne
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If they're not careful "in the hold of a Ticonderoga class missile cruiser."
I mean t he biggest oil reserves of any country on earth is hyper inflating?
Why should I be worried about "peak anything"?
Gold bottoms tomorrow, then up, up and away.
Hugo looks like Dick Cheney in a fatboy costume.
Where is Venezuela's Gold ? We could tell you; but then we'd have to kill you.
"...his party was given a tour of the central bank's underground gold vault in Caracas and allowed to view the bank's considerable gold holdings."
War or some other "cookie" coup upheaval coming Venezuela's way in the next year--GUARANTEED.
An American, not US subject.
"The beast, the Rothschild banksters, must be fed."
I heard it's directly under Warren's house in Omaha. Need directions?
Nice pic of Hugo w/ the "chemo tan". Might as well look good on your way out.
Posession is 9/10'ths of the law
But Payback is a 100% Bitch.
It's a good bet the Chavez Family has a modest sized pallet of those bars stored away for "safekeeping".
Takes-backsies is 9/11th's
Socialism... failing every time it is tried.
Despite the kleptomaniac disposition that every Marxist dictator has, they bankrupt their nations every time. Regardless of academia's absurd assertion that Marxism has never really been tried.
Speaking of klepto... who really has any physical? With hypothecation and rehypothecation can anyone really know who "owns" it? I suspect that if rehypothecation was figured into the price, gold would be astronomically expensive.
Socialism failing?
For whom? The architects seem to have profited nicely.
You know I break my Ramen soup in half and just cook half.
Looks to me like my 3 OZ pack of Ramen is smaller these days. In the 1970s you got big packs of flavor bullion and they must have cut that down quite some time ago. But now it really looks like a smaller soup when you cooking it up.
Could be Michelle Obama's Nutrition plan, but I think it is just a sign of Inflation
---
I suspect that the UK & USA Invented Rehypothication. (But I'm not a Financial Expert)
I could totally fit that brick in my ass.
If it fits, it ships.
Oh, stop; you're cracking me up, it only hurts when I laugh.
For a few stiches, I would probably try too!
Maybe saw it in half lengthways and buff the edges a bit?
??? Say What ?.
You aren't a Kardashian by chance?
SOURCE - "FEMALE" WORKING WITH THE CENTRAL BANK OF VENEZUELA :
"THE MAJORITY OF THE REPATRIATED GOLD WAS FLOWN DIRECTLY TO CHINA.'
......look next for another "argentinian' type default of us denominated bonds, and look for china to become the new reserve funding/trading source.
Why not have a guy like Rodriguez, maybe A-Rod since he's doing nothing, walk thru Fort Knox?
A-Rod could then randomly grab a "Good Delivery" bar from the middle of some random pallet, and have a techie saw the bar in half for inspection.
Once verified as gold and not tungsten, the sawed bar could be auctioned on Ebay.
Tungsten bars could then be counted and the culprits placed behind steel bars.
The only bars in Fort Knox are bars made from melted down gold coins...
Edmund Moy, former Director of the US Mint, November 2013:
"One of my first observations about the gold there, was, you think about modern good delivery bars, the 400oz bars that are made in Switzerland, think of shiny gold, and these bars at Fort Knox, are..., look like.., dirty gold, with some corrosion on them, and they're not as yellow..and you know, so that was one of the first things, is this real gold there?, and then you realize, you know, Roosevelt had made it illegal for Americans to physically possess gold coins, and he melted all those gold coins, and that's what ended up being the initial stock at Fort Knox, and a lot of those coins are 22 carat gold, which then have impurities, and a lot of it wasn't refined when it was made into these bars that ended up making it into Fort Knox, and so when you take a look at each bar, you realize what history's behind it, how many coins must have been melted in order to make the bar, and what life stories must have been part of all that."
Video: http://www.coinweek.com/education/really-gold-fort-knox-video-527/
Last week, S&P cut Venezuela’s credit rating from B - to CCC+. Today I'm cutting S&P rating from C- to F-.
S&P---Suffering and Poverty--for you. Cheezebrgs R ourz.
Dem wot gots the Oil... is dem wot gots the Credit.
Not the Golden Rule... the Petro Dollar Rule.
strange dinosaur tree fermented fruit juice ? or non-bio secreted earth juicies?
do unto others as neither a borrower or leander would? i dunno. tell me!
I would love carrying one of those bricks through a TSA checkpoint...
You mean you'd love to see someone else try and inevitably fail?
Carrying one of those things around would be an invitation to a big juicy asset seizure for some indebted government.
Lloyd Blankfein says: "Up your butt and around the corner. Two blocks down main street."
[Probably]
When will someone take a count at Fort Knox and Federal Reserve in Manahattan?
The Fed is a private institution. They don't have to account for anything.
Yeah they do...just not to the taxpayer.
The day before they have a terrible airplane accident.
Are you nuts? There is nothing to count. Why do you suppose nobody's seen any of that shit in 40 years? It does not exist.
Here let me count it for you. There I'm done.
I heard the only thing they store at Fort Knox now is the alien technology and Dick Cheney's original heart..
Funny - South America is playing 'musical vaults’.
I need a check please.
They had to give the gold to Venezula because they couldn't control Hugo and his mouth and if they didn't he would have made a stink internationally that they don't have the gold so they scramblled to get it.
If Goldman is willing to hold two billion in gold as collateral, I guess I should hold on to mine.
(FYI much less than two billion)
China.. Singapore.. Hong Kong.. in secure allocated storage for the .0001 percent.
Maybe some in Carribean home vaults.
POOF....*
Puhlease... the only thing sitting in those vaults is tugsten.
For everybody holding tungsten or multiply-rehypothecated gold, somebody's got the real gold. Who is that?
You bet your ass those trucks were empty.
I've tried on and off to find out just how much gold the Fed or .gov holds for other nations...have not been able to find such a list. Must be a big secret. Big big.
"The New York Fed does not indicate in any of its reports, including its annual financial statements, the names of the countries and account holders.
Most of the 122 accounts are held by the central banks of sovereign countries, which in addition to their gold accounts have statutory agreements with the NY Federal Reserve. "
http://rt.com/op-edge/gold-manhattan-new-york-594/
Naturally, I suspect this gold won't be leaving the US anytime soon...if the FED still has it.