Venezuela sues black market currency website in United States

reuters ^ | October 23, 2015 | andrew cawthorne

[lowbridge]

Venezuela's Central Bank filed a lawsuit on Friday with allegations of "cyber-terrorism" against a U.S.-based website that tracks the OPEC member's currency black market.

The DolarToday site has enraged President Nicolas Maduro's government by publishing a rate in Venezuelan bolivars for the greenback far higher than the three official levels under Venezuela's 12-year-long currency controls.

The rate has become an unofficial marker in the crisis-ridden economy, with some Venezuelans using it in private transactions or to fix prices of imported goods.

The lawsuit, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, named three Venezuelans in the United States as being behind the site: Gustavo Diaz, Ivan Lozada and Jose Altuve.

A representative of DolarToday could not immediately be reached by email or telephone for comment.

The Central Bank requested both an injunction and damages, accusing the three of fanning inflation in Venezuela, the world's highest, and enriching themselves by illegal trading.

[PJ-Comix]

DolarToday, which takes an aggressively anti-Maduro stance in its publications and says it calculates its rate based on trades on the Venezuela-Colombia border, quoted the dollar at 820 bolivars on Friday.

That is 130 times the strongest official rate of 6.3 bolivars and four times the government's weakest rate of 200.

That gives you an idea of how incredibly inflated the REAL value of the Bolivar is. The top Chavistas exchange 6.3 Bolivares for a dollar then turn around, buy Black Market Bolivares at the market rate of 820 per dollar then turn around and exchange at the official rate of 6.3 Bolivares per dollar. Wash, rinse, repeat and you can see how the corrupt Chavistas are profiting and now they don't want people to see what the REAL rate is. .