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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Richard Partington Senior economics correspondent

Deep in the vaults: the Bank of England’s £1.4bn Venezuelan gold conundrum

Gold bullion in the vaults at the Bank of England
The Bank of England keeps about 400,000 gold bars on behalf of governments and institutions worldwide. Photograph: Bank Of England/Shutterstock

Deep under London’s streets, thousands of miles from Caracas, Nicolás Maduro’s seizure by the US has reopened a multibillion-dollar question: who controls Venezuela’s gold reserves at the Bank of England?

After the ousting of Maduro, global attention has largely focused on the South American country’s vast oil wealth – believed to be the largest reserves of any nation in the world. However, Venezuela also has significant gold holdings – including bullion worth at least $1.95bn (£1.4bn) frozen in Britain.

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