Citgo to be acquired by American hands.

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, it’s Independence Day weekend, and wonderful things are happening in America. One of the biggest deals around in the last few days, and very few people know about it. Well, Sitko the Venezuelan company. It’s going to fall into American hands on Thursday night. The court has ordered to be sold to a Poor Rivet, the executive vice chairman and

0:28 CEO of Gold Reserve, and it’s gonna be for seven point nine billion dollars. Used to be a lot of money. I think it’s still does a lot of money. Well, Poor congratulations, and it’s good for tak those Venezuelan assets away from Venezuela and put into American hands. Tell us all about.

0:53 Speaker 2 It, John, Thank you, Hey, thank you very much for taking the time to hear our story. And happy July fourth weekend. I am you know, I’m privileged to be able to be a part of this great success story, a great American success story, to be able to bring these assets back. You know, with the Special Master’s recommendation today,

1:17 we now have the ability to bring this this great company to go back into into American hands. Our shareholders at Gold Reserve are primarily American American citizens, as I am. But let me tell you a little bit about Gold Reserve.

1:34 You know, a company that started more than fifteen years ago as a gold miner. That’s that’s why we have the name Gold Reserve. But found this amazing gold deposit in Venezuela, and like so many companies that that faced Chavez and then Maduro, lost that great gold deposit twenty twenty million ounces, John, if you believe a twenty million

2:01 ounces of today’s gold price would be somewhere near sixty billion in value. And it was.

2:07 Speaker 1 A poor company at that point.

2:11 Speaker 2 Yeah, No, we were not a poor company at that point. But then it was taken, it was pulled away from US illegally by the by the that regime there in Venezuela, like so many other great companies like Conical, Phillips and UH and others that had their assets stolen. And so we went thankfully the US set up a system where

2:34 we could bring our claims to the Delaware Court and and and get compensation UH through through getting SITCO and so taking Sitko away from Venezuelan hands and bringing it back back to the rightful owners. So that’s it’s taken us, John, Unbelievably almost fifteen years to fight through all of that, and now have this recommendation going to the court, and

2:59 and if the court approves it in August, we’ll be able to deliver uh deliver the co assets to our shareholders, which is absolutely amazing. We’re just elated.

3:10 Speaker 1 Well, that is wonderful news. And it’s good that for national security purposes that it fall, that shitgo falls and into American hands, and and that the refineries to fall into American hands, and uh, what else do you want to tell us?

3:28 Speaker 2 Well, I think the other big thing is, first off, we have to say thanks to to the you know, the institutions that supported us. In particular our bid you know, was backed by by JP Morgan. You know, they they stepped up, but they give us, you know, give us a big loan to help with the acquisition. But the

3:48 other piece, John is you know I mentioned that we had this these gold reserves taken from us, expropriated illegally from us. But we still have the second aim in gold reserve. So there’s a way for us if that if that regime, if we can ever get democracy back into Venezuela, if we can ever get the you know,

4:09 get get the right people back running that country, which which you know is right in our hemisphere. You know, we have another opportunity to go back to Venezuela as well. So you know, gold Reserve shaholders thankfully have this win keeping these assets, these great Pico assets in the United States.

4:28 But there’s also a way for us to go through this what we call our second arbitration back to Venezuela if if there is ever a regime change there, So you know, we’ll we’ll constantly be watching what’s happening there.

4:39 But but we’re super thankful to the US government for support and for OPAC that has maintained process in the United States.

4:50 Speaker 1 Who do you have any partners in a deal? And who’s your investment Banka.

4:56 Speaker 2 Yeah, so so we’re led by a JP Morgan and TD Bank and TD Bank was crucial over the last three or so months here because Morgan Morgan Stanley decided to pull out of the process entirely. But it’s been JP Morgan, TD Bank, and UH and Zumotomo Bank, so you know, the mighty JP Morgan and TD which is

5:21 Canadian and the Sumotomo which is Japanese. So it’s a little bit of a mix there. But but JP Morgan has known these assets forever. They’ve been the banker to hit go for over ten years, and so they were fantastic.

5:34 Speaker 1 Paul Rivett, congratulations on this fourth of July weekend in America. And it’s good that it falls into American hands and and the fact is it’s great for national security too. And let’s catch up again real soon.

5:49 Speaker 2 Awesome, Thank you very much, John, and happy July fourth weekend and glad to have these assets on July fourth Stan in US N all the best, God bless