“Venezuela is borrowing at loan shark rates, as if they were going out of business and had no intention of paying these bonds back,” said Russ Dallen, managing partner at the brokerage Caracas Capital, which tracks Venezuela’s bond market.
El Nuevo Herald: Maduro emite $8,000 millones en deuda a precios de liquidación en desesperada búsqueda de financiamiento
“Esos son precios de liquidación”, explicó Russ Dallen, socio de la firma de corretaje Caracas Capital Markets. “Es del tipo de operaciones que una persona realiza cuando sabe que al final no va a pagar las deudas, como cuando estás por declarar la bancarrota pero poco antes sales a comprar de todo, cargando hasta el máximo las tarjetas de crédito”.
Los bonos al portador, que en esencia permitirían a una persona transportar $5,000 millones anónimamente dentro de un maletín, son un instrumento actualmente muy pocas veces visto en los mercados financieros, tras haber sido descontinuados en Estados Unidos y otros países por convertirse en el instrumento perfecto para el lavado de dinero y la evasión fiscal.
La referencia mejor conocida sobre estos instrumentos quizás sea los bonos al portador Nakatomi, mencionados en la película Duro de Matar con Bruce Willis, donde el villano, Hans Gruber, esperaba escapar cómodamente con $640 millones dentro de una valija.
“No se pueden portar $5,000 millones dentro de un maletín en billetes de $100”, comentó Dallen. “Estos son instrumentos perfectos para terroristas ficcionales y, aparentemente también, para el régimen venezolano”.
http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/venezuela-es/article154956354.html
El Mundo: Acusan a Goldman de ahorrarse 390 millones financiando a Maduro
La clave, según ha explicado Russ Dallen, socio y manager de Caracas Capital a este periódico, es que Dinosaur sólo hizo de intermediario, con un dinero que no era suyo -sino de Goldman- para comprar los bonos al banco central de Venezuela, que era quien tenía los bonos. Así, lo que era una venta directa quedaba formalmente como una operación en el mercado secundario.
http://www.elmundo.es/economia/2017/06/01/592f1a6e268e3ef5238b479e.html
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Blutgeld für den Diktator – Goldman Sachs kauft Anleihen von Venezuela
Goldman Sachs rechtfertigte sich gegen die Kritik in einer Stellungnahme. Der Bank sei bewusst, dass „Venezuela in einer Krise steckt“. Mit dem Geschäft setze Goldman jedoch auf eine künftige „Besserung des Lebens“ in Venezuela. Wenn die Bank das so sehe, „hätte sie die Anleihen auf dem Sekundärmarkt kaufen können, ohne das Geld direkt an Maduro zu geben“, kommentierte der amerikanische Spezialist für Venezuela-Anleihen, Russ Dallen. Stattdessen habe sie „wie ein Pfandverleiher, der weiß, dass er Diebesgut annimmt, 865 Millionen Dollar an ein illegitimes und diktatorisches Regime geliefert“.
http://plus.faz.net/evr-editions/2017-06-01/r9u3OIWigWbdrzMxLKwrK1PO?GEPC=s3
Financial Times: Why Goldman’s Venezuela bond trade sparked controversy
The Wall Street Journal named the brokerage as a little-known outfit called Dinosaur Group, too small to have bought the bonds and sold them itself, so it would only have been an intermediary, argues Russ Dallen of Caracas Capital. And the Venezuelan central bank’s reserves rose by $442m to $10.8bn last Thursday, the day the bond trade is reported to have gone through.
https://www.ft.com/content/c2f0fc3c-466b-11e7-8519-9f94ee97d996
CNN: Venezuelans are Outraged at Goldman Sachs
“I find what Goldman did morally reprehensible,” says Russ Dallen, managing partner of Caracas Capital, an investing firm in Miami.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/30/news/economy/goldman-sachs-venezuela/index.html
Vanessa Neumann: How Goldman Sachs Is Ruining My Venezuela
The immorality of the transaction is matched only by its strangeness. In an email Tuesday to colleagues, Venezuelan financial expert Russell Dallen compared Goldman’s behavior to “a pawn-shop owner buying goods they know are stolen.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/how-goldman-sachs-is-ruining-my-venezuela
Barron’s: Venezuela Gasps On Capitalist Bond Buying – Goldman & Spin
Here’s what Venezuela bond investor and Latin American Herald Tribune publisher Russ Dallen doesn’t mince words on Goldman’s Venezuela bond purchase:
“… full-court press on the issue — the latest leg seems to be looking for Dinosaur Securities‘ Javier Perez-Santalla, who is thought to be the intermediary between the Venezuela Central Bank and Goldman, and wondering just how much the spread was on this transaction. Dinosaur Securities is an extremely small shop and does not have $900 million to buy these bonds. They merely broked [sic] the bonds to Goldman, making Goldman’s statement that they “bought the bonds in the secondary market and did not buy them directly from Venezuela” bull**** technical spin …”
Dallen also is questioning the numbers, based on previous reporting on size of the bond issuance. he adds;
” … if the WSJ is correct and Goldman bought $2.8 billion of the PDVSA 6% of 2022, what does [U.S. investment fund Fintech Advisory] have in repo, because according to the Reuters story last month Fintech got $1.3 billion of the PDVSA 6% of 2022 (at what looked to be a price of 23). The problem is that there are only $3 billion of these bonds — so either at least one of the stories is incorrect, or the Venezuela Central Bank recalled the Fintech repo early, or Venezuela and PDVSA made more than $3 billion of this bond …”
http://www.barrons.com/articles/venezuela-gasps-on-capitalist-bond-buying-goldman-spin-1496250006
Warga Venezuela marah besar kepada Goldman Sachs
“Saya melihat apa yang Goldman lakukan secara moral sungguh tercela,” kata Russ Dallen, managing partner Caracas Capital, perusahaan investasi di Miami.
http://internasional.kontan.co.id/news/warga-venezuela-marah-besar-kepada-goldman-sachs
Wall Street Journal: After Goldman Deal, More Bonds Left for Venezuela’s Fire Sale
“Goldman is giving new money to a dictatorial regime that’s killing its own people,” said Russ Dallen, a managing partner at investment bank Caracas Capital Markets in Venezuela.
Barron’s: Russia-Venezuela Citgo Debt ‘National Security Issue,’ Mnuchin Says
It says that if Venezuela defaults, “This could leave Rosneft, a Russian company controlled by oligarchs with close ties to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, in control of critical energy infrastructure in the United States.” Russ Dallen, an investor in Venezuela bonds and publisher of the Latin American Herald Tribune, has his ear to the ground on this matter, and was the first to publish on the Mnuchin comment.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=2436574&CategoryId=10717
Wall Street Journal: As Venezuela’s Default Risk Rises, Battle Heats Up for Control of Refiner Citgo
“There are more hands out than there are assets to pay them,” said Russ Dallen, a partner at investment bank Caracas Capital Markets, based in the Venezuelan capital.
***
“Everyone in the game is a big boy and they know the only way Citgo is worth anything is if it is a going concern,” Mr. Dallen of Caracas Capital Markets said.
Fox Business: sigue la batalla por control de Citgo mientras sube el factor riesgo en Venezuela
“Hay más manos que no son activos para pagar ellos”, dijo Russ Dallen, socio del banco de inversión Caracas Capital Markets, con sede en la capital venezolana.
***
“Todo el mundo en el juego es un niño grande y saben que la única manera de Citgo es digno de cualquier cosa es si se trata de una empresa en marcha”, el Sr. Dallen de Caracas Capital Markets, dijo.
CNN: Crisis-Ridden Venezuela Gave $500K to Trump inauguration
“It is an amazing amount of money that could have fed a lot of the population for the month,” says Russ Dallen, managing partner of Caracas Capital, an investing firm based in Miami.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/20/news/economy/venezuela-trump-inauguration/
CNN en Espanol: En plena crisis, Venezuela aportó 500.000 dólares para la posesión de Trump
“Es una gran cantidad de dinero que pudo haber alimentado a bastante parte de la población durante un mes”, sostuvo Russ Dallen socio y gerente de Caracas Capital, una firma de inversiones con sede en Miami, Estados Unidos.
