
“Venezuela’s currency controls are turning trips abroad into profitable junkets. A 27-year-old trade analyst from Caracas said she earned six times her monthly salary by traveling in April to Lima, where a business swiped her credit card and gave her $1,600 cash, charged at the official exchange rate of 6.3 bolivars per dollar. When the analyst, who requested anonymity because what she did is illegal, returned to Venezuela, she sold the dollars at the street rate of 29-to-1, enough to pocket 25,000 bolivars after paying off her credit card and travel expenses. The scheme, known as ‘raspao’ or ‘big scrape,’ is booming in Venezuela.”
Related posts:
Brewington case focuses First Amendment attention on Indiana
Illinois medical marijuana bill to be signed Thursday
I was a Saudi arms dealer’s ‘pleasure wife’
SS agents camp outside woman's house after dispute with neighbor
Ex-cop accused of groping women gets two-year sentence
NYC's Bloomberg led the way on trans fats ban
For Congress, ‘it’s classified’ is new equivalent of ‘none of your business’
California to cap income eligibility for clean-vehicle rebates [2014]
Jim Rogers: Gold Could Fall To $900, India To Blame For Correction
Baghdad cafe bombing kills 27 ahead of elections
Border-patrol drones being borrowed by other agencies more often
Snowden fate in balance as Cuba backs asylum bid
Could China make or break bitcoin?
Visa aims to make future payments friction-free
Liberty Reserve founder: I was arrested for not giving FBI source code