Mysterious Turkish firm helped Maduro move $900m in gold
Mysterious Turkish firm helped Maduro move $900m in gold
STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: The firm started business with a bang in January of 2018, when it imported about $41 million worth of gold from Venezuela, the first such transaction between the two countries in records that go back 50 years. The next month its volume more than doubled, with Sardes transporting almost $100 million worth to Turkey, Bloomberg reports.
By November, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing sanctions on Venezuelan gold -- after sending an envoy to warn Turkey off the trade, Sardes had shuttled $900 million of the precious metal out of the country. Not bad for a company with just $1 million in capital, according to regulatory filings in Istanbul.
It’s not the first time that Turkey has positioned itself as a work-around for countries facing US sanctions, potentially undermining Washington’s efforts to isolate governments it considers hostile or corrupt. Ankara has often tested the boundaries of US tolerance, and the alliance between the key NATO members is now essentially broken, according to two senior US officials.
