By Marlene Lenthang For Dailymail.com and Reuters
Published: 21:24 GMT, 21 March 2019 | Updated: 03:05 GMT, 22 March 2019
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Citigroup Inc. will sell several tons of Venezuelan gold it received as collateral from the Maduro regime to settle the nation's billion-dollar loan debt, marking a major financial blow to the dictator's embattled rule.
Venezuela's Central Bank missed a deadline on March 11 to repay Citigroup $1.1billion of their $1.6billion loan signed back in 2015, four sources familiar with the matter said.
Now that the deadline has passed, Citigroup will sell off the collateral gold Venezuela gave them, valued at roughly $1.358billion, to recover the loan amount.
The excess $258million made in the sale will then be deposited into a U.S. bank account in New York, as per two sources.
Citigroup will sell several tons of Venezuelan gold worth $1.4billion after the Maduro regime missed a deadline to buy it back as a part of their 2015 financial deal in exchange for a $1.6billion loan
That money won't be accessible to Maduro's regime, and as a further hit, it could be handed over to the transitional government's leader Juan Guaido, according to Bloomberg.
Maduro's government has used financial operations known as gold swaps since 2014 where they offer gold as collateral to tap into international reserves to access cash.
Back in 2015, Venezuela agreed to give Citibank the 'significant volume
