Last Friday afternoon, while Donald Trump was busy signing executive orders and meeting his cabinet about Iran, something unusual was spotted near the Oval Office.
According to the New York ost citing "On The Money", a couple of men in dark suits were seen pushing a cart through the hallways of the White House that appeared to be loaded with gold bars.
The bars reportedly looked very large — not the small one-ounce pieces that people buy from stores like Costco. Instead, they resembled the heavy, foot-long gold bars often associated with Fort Knox, the kind typically seen in movies such as James Bond. These bars are so heavy that lifting one would require both hands and considerable effort.
Queried on the spectacle, sources said the dark-suited “G-Men” replied that they were there to show the President part of a stash that was seized from former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro following his January arrest on various narco-terrorism charges, including tens of millions of dollars’ worth of gold he locked away in a safe.
Could the tantalising tale be genuine? After making some calls, On The Money learned that the gold did indeed come from Venezuela, and the bullion was indeed supposed to be shown to the President, but that the part about the Maduro secret stash was crafted from pyrite.
The real story, my sources say, is that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum just finalised a series of licensing deals, including one with Minerven, a Venezuelan state-owned gold mining company. Minerven agreed to sell physical gold to the Trafigura Group (known as Trafi), which trades gold on US markets as part of the White House effort to re-integrate Venezuela back into the global economy.
The big bars were carted around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave as a sort of trophy to commemorate this broadening economic alliance between 2 countries that were once sworn enemies but now – thanks to President Trump’s removal and imprisonment of Maduro – are on the road to economic cooperation.
Trump officials, coy about confirming whether the gold bars were shown to the President, stopped short of denying that the White House played host to the gold on Friday.
“This historic gold deal between Trafi and Venezuela was in the works at President Trump’s direction,” the White House told On The Money in a statement. “Secretary Burgum’s trip to Venezuela with the President’s National Energy Dominance Council sealed the deal. We are helping Venezuela restore their mining sector, which will help American industry get the minerals we need.”
Burgum himself shed some additional light on the gold-bar mystery during a Fox News interview, where he explained that “On Friday, there was $100 million of gold that came from Venezuela to the United States. Venezuela’s got $500 billion of resources of gold,” Burgum said. “The enthusiasm is high in Venezuela as to what their future can be.”
Still, aside from its ruthless communist dictatorship, isn’t Venezuela best known for its oil reserves as opposed to precious metals? Yes – Venezuela is oil rich, but it’s also mineral rich. That’s why this Central American nation was an economic powerhouse for decades and, until relatively recently, it was transformed into a basket case under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
Both men chased out foreign investment, including US mining and oil companies. With that, its economy collapsed, and economic deprivation followed.
Charlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet.
By locking up Maduro, the Trump administration is looking to advance American business interests with a new and friendlier govt run by Delcy Rodriguez and, yes, reverse the poverty that Maduro & Co unleashed on the Venezuelan people.
Last week, Burgum met with top Venezuelan energy and mining executives, including on the deal between Minerven and Trafi that appears to be the source of those gold bars at the White House.
“When we were there last week with oil and gas executives and top mining executives, they were excited to get back to Venezuela and explore the great opportunities available there,” Burgum added in his Fox News interview.
“People of Venezuela are going to dedicate a statue for Trump because he is going to open their economy again, after more than 2 decades,” Burgum added.
