Two Vile Names, One Sweetheart Deal: Goldman Bails Out Maduro
Who says two amoral and corrupt institutions with diametrically opposing ideologies can't collaborate to sink even lower together?
Goldman Sachs, infamous investment bank and symbol of international predatory capitalism, has made a devil's bargain with Nicolás Maduro, the infamous left-wing dictator of Venezuela who claims to despise companies just like Goldman. As Forbes writes:
"What happened is that the Venezuelan Treasury owned some bonds issued by PDVSA, the national oil company. They sold those bonds to Goldman Sachs at a serious discount to face value."
Maduro's authoritarian government has been rocked by protests this spring thanks to widespread economic and political devastation. (Maduro blames his country's problems on an "economic war" waged by Washington.) The most shocking statistic is that 75 percent of Venezuelans are said to have lost at least 19 pounds from food shortages.
The Goldman deal was a win-win for the bank and the dictator. Goldman bought $2.8 billion worth of oil bonds for 32 cents on the dollar, according to the Times of London. Maduro's regime, in return, immediately gets to stock its coffers with about $865 million.
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