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Message:: [QUOTE="GoldFinger1969, post: 25219737, member: 73489"]Interesting post @ CU that caught my attention by someone who said they had family members from Venezuela and employed in their national oil company, PDVSA.  He says that the Fairmont Collection/Hoard is from Venezuela...from high-ranking PDVSA and government elites cashing out after Hugo Chavez died. No hard proof offered -- but I see Venezuela as a very plausible source for the Fairmont Hoard:<ul> <li>It's a huge hoard, not likely one accumulated by an individual (even a wealthy one).  Over 9 tons potentially.  More likely to be the kind of stash a small country acquires.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Venezuela has been an autocratic, kleptocratic country ever since WW II. I could see siphoning off of government funds for personal use by the #1 man and a few of his loyal underlings.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>PDVSA, the Venezuelan national oil company, has (until recently) been a prodigious cash generator, the kind that could be easily looted by a dictator and his henchman over the decades.  Forget about the 1940's and 1950's and later....in Brazil, we had Petrobras looted only 20 years ago and used brazenly by political elites.  And Brazil has a somewhat healthy 2-party system; Venezuela hasn't had that in ages, if ever.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Central Bank and other banks (if solvent) easily controlled by the government/dictator without any laws on private property rights, an independent judiciary, etc....to protect them.</li> </ul>Other hoards -- from a few dozen coins to the 1983 MTB El Salvador Hoard -- trace their origins to countries in South and Central America with similar stories to Venezuela.  But except for Mexico, none have a company like PDVSA that generates lots of $$$ and could be easily looted by corrupt government or oil executive higher-ups. Let's see if more develops on this story.[/QUOTE]

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