Gato por liebre?

21 February 2018 By Christopher Beddor, Martin Langfield

President Maduro says early sales of its oil-backed petro raised $735 mln. Investing in the virtual coinage is tantamount to a bet on the increasingly autocratic administration’s probity, transparency and basic grasp of economic reality. Good luck with that.

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Venezuela's Maduro enters alternate reality

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Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said on Feb. 20 that Venezuela had received $735 million on the first day of a presale of the country’s crypto-currency, dubbed petro. Maduro did not give details about the initial investors and presented no evidence to back up his figure. He added that some gasoline sales, oil transactions and payments related to tourism could be made using the petro.

Swiss financial watchdog FINMA said on Feb. 21 that it is investigating several Swiss banks over whether they followed anti-money laundering rules amid a widening $1 billion graft probe involving Venezuela’s state oil company. A U.S. federal indictment this month accused five former Venezuelan officials of soliciting bribes to help vendors win favorable treatment from Petroleos de Venezuela and then stashing the money in banks, including in Switzerland.

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