New court battle looms over country’s £ 800m hoard of gold bullion

A LANDMARK legal battle over who the UK Government recognises as president of Venezuela is set to be reconsidered following a Court of Appeal ruling.

The challenge was brought over $ 1bn (£ 800m) of gold bullion held in the vaults of the Bank of England for Banco Central de Venezuela ( BCV).

Lawyers representing the BCV board appointed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro took legal action earlier this year to release the gold held on its behalf, which it wants to sell to help tackle the country’s coronavirus crisis.

The “Maduro board” of the BCV says it has agreed to transfer the funds to the United Nations Development Programme to buy “healthcare equipment, medicines and basic foodstuffs”.

But the Bank of England says it is “caught in the middle” of rival claims to the gold, from the BCV board appointed by Mr Maduro and an “ad hoc” board appointed by opposition leader Juan Guaido.

In July, the High Court ruled that the UK Government has “unequivocally recognised” Mr Guaido as interim president of Venezuela, and that he has the authority to give instructions in relation to the gold.

Mr Justice Teare found that a statement by then foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt in February 2019 was “a formal statement that Her Majesty’s Government now recognised Mr Guaido as the interim president”.

But, in a judgment delivered remotely yesterday, the Court of Appeal found that Mr Hunt’s statement was “ambiguous, or at any rate less than unequivocal”.

The judge said the case should be reconsidered by the High Court to determine whether the Government “recognises Mr Guaido as president of Venezuela for all purposes and therefore does not recognise Mr Maduro as president for any purpose”.