The Bank of England’s £1.4bn Venezuelan gold conundrum

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/06/bank-of-england-venezuelan-gold-nicolas-maduro-us-uk

Posted by no_cupid_stunts

10 Comments

  1. ClassicFlavour on

    > who controls Venezuela’s gold reserves at the Bank of England?

    *”Sorry, what gold?”*

  2. No-Scholar4854 on

    > Venezuela has about 31 tonnes of gold held in the vaults of Threadneedle Street, equivalent to about 15% of its total foreign currency reserves. UK court documents put the value in 2020 at about $1.95bn. However, the gold price has more than doubled since, meaning the bars are probably worth considerably more

    “Probably”?

  3. Ironically Maduro being ousted helps the Bank of England as they couldn’t hand the money over as he wasn’t considered the legal president after he rigged the election.

  4. Nuclear_Wasteman on

    It’s still Venezuela’s surely? Why is there a conundrum unless people think this was Maduro’s personal stash…

    Venezuela hasn’t been invaded, their president was snatched by US forces and the VP has taken over as per their continuity of government procedures.

    There is far too much foaming at the mouth by everyone over this especially re: Blumpf’s previous rhetoric towards Greenland. He wants the EU to start pulling their weight with regards to defence spending. Is he a blunt instrument? Yes. Is he going to try and annexe Greenland? No.

  5. KinkySouthAsian on

    Nothing new there. The British Empire actually started out as pirates, they pirated Spanish ships carrying Gold from Latin America and used it to massively expand their Navy and conquer many areas around the world.

  6. DateNecessary8716 on

    Reminds me of the tank problem we had.

    We sold 100 tanks to the Shah of Iran, who was deposed. We then had no one to deliver them to, so we sold them again lol.

  7. £1.4 billion in gold is equivalent to 13 tonnes with a volume of 0.7m³. Storage cost is just £14,000 a year.

    That’s not a lot, considering the security costs for it. How does the Bank of England make money looking after it?

  8. carbonbasedbiped67 on

    One that tangerine faced thing in power in the USA hears about this he’ll demand this gold as his and start threatening Starmer…