Venezuela’s Economy Suffers as Import Schemes Siphon Billions

[brooklynite]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: New York Times

CARACAS, Venezuela — The weed whackers were $12,300. Each.

Then there was the $1.8 million machinery to kill and gut chickens. When the police checked it, they found a worthless jumble of rusted scrap metal.

...snip...
The government’s complex currency system has led to exorbitant schemes by importers, who wildly inflate the value of goods brought into the country to grab American dollars at rock-bottom exchange rates. Sometimes, they fake the shipments altogether and import nothing at all.

Then they just pocket the dollars that the government provides, or sell some of the money for a gargantuan profit on the soaring black market here for American currency.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/world/americas/venezuelas-economy-suffers-as-import-schemes-siphon-billions.html?_r=0

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I'm sure someone will blame the CIA for this as well; gotta wonder why the Venezuelan Government isn't providing appropriate oversight.

[Bacchus4.0]

1. what a disaster nt

[Perseus]

2. It is the people in Government linked to those outside puuting the money in their personal accounts

“It’s scandalous,” said Víctor Álvarez, a leftist economist and government minister under Hugo Chávez, the former president who died in 2013. “It’s like the robbery that our people were subject to in the time of the conquest and the colonies, when the gold and silver were carted off by the ton.”

That is a quote from a Chavista, don't believe it...it is the government doing it to the Venezuelan people, they control the money exchange and it is almost impossible to get dollars unless you are in the government.

"One economic consulting firm, Ecoanalítica, estimated that about $69.5 billion was stolen through import fraud from 2003 to 2012. It said that 20 percent of the importing done by private companies had been bogus, while 40 percent of the imports carried out by government agencies and government-run companies had been fraudulent."

The previous paragraph is the reality, and I bet to say the the percentages where government is involved is higher.

"At the heart of the import ploys are the country’s currency controls, which were begun in 2003 by Mr. Chávez."

[Bacchus4.0]

3. Of course. Imagine being "plugged in" and you buy dollars at 6 Bs to 1 USD, then

turning around and selling each dollar for the current black market rate of Bs 280:1. Rinse and repeat until wealthy.

[Omaha Steve]

4. Locking

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