U.S. successfully lobbies Bank of England to block Maduro's access to $1.2 billion in Venezuelan gold reserves

In a powerful move, top U.S. officials, led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have successfully lobbied England to deny former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro access to Venezuela's financial reserves. Venezuela's foreign reserves total $8 billion, $1.2 billion of which is stored with the Bank of England.

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Maduro is locked in a massive power struggle with challenger Juan Guaido, the National Assembly leader, who the US, UK and other countries recognize as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. At the same time the US and UK are restricting Maduro's access to capital, they are reportedly working to shuttle Venezuelan assets stored overseas to Guaido.

No officials from Venezuela, the UK or the US will comment on the record as Maduro's economic and political control hangs in the balance.

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Mike Dudas is one of the founders of The Block and was the CEO until April 2020 and a board member until April 2021. Prior to starting The Block, Mike was co-founder and CRO of Button, the leading global, mobile performance marketing platform. Mike is a builder of mobile commerce businesses, having worked at Google, Braintree/Venmo and PayPal. Early in his career, Mike worked in corporate M&A and strategy for Disney. Mike earned a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg.