US holds Venezuelan gold but refiners shun it over criminality concerns

The Trump administration has brought Venezuelan gold to the U.S., but refineries are refusing to process it due to ongoing criminality in Venezuela's gold sector. This creates a bottleneck: the U.S. holds the asset but cannot monetize it, and the move signals a policy alignment with a tainted industry. The development is uncertain in scope—how much gold, from whom, and under what legal authority—but it exposes a gap between political intent and market/regulatory reality.