Goldman Sachs condemned for buoying Venezuela with $2.8bn bond purchase [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Goldman Sachs condemned for buoying Venezuela with $2.8bn bond purchase

Dominic Rushe in New York
Tuesday 30 May 2017 16.36 BST

Goldman Sachs has confirmed it has bought $2.8bn worth of bonds from Venezuela’s crisis-torn government in a move opposition leaders have decried for propping up the country’s “dictatorial regime”.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Sunday that the bank had bought $2.8bn worth of bonds held by the country’s central bank.

“Goldman Sachs’s financial lifeline to the regime will serve to strengthen the brutal repression unleashed against the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans peacefully protesting for political change in the country,” Julio Borges, head of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress, said in a public letter to the bank’s chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein.

“It is apparent Goldman Sachs decided to make a quick buck off the suffering of the Venezuelan people,” he wrote. “I also intend to recommend to any future democratic government of Venezuela not to recognize or pay on these bonds.”

According to the Journal, Goldman paid just $865m for bonds valued at $2.8bn issued by the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) – paying about 31 cents on the dollar for the bonds. ...

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/goldman-sachs-venezuela-bonds