(Reuters) – Japanese investment bank Nomura Securities bought about $100 million worth of Venezuelan government bonds last week as part of the same transaction that has landed Goldman Sachs Group Inc in the middle of a political controversy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Nomura’s trading arm paid about $30 million for the debt, a steep discount to where the troubled country’s bonds trade in the market, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (http://on.wsj.com/ 2qGSDyY)
A spokeswoman for Nomura’s U.S. business declined to comment.
After a report that Goldman Sachs had bought $2.8 billion in bonds from Venezuela, the president of the country’s opposition-run Congress accused the Wall Street bank of “aiding and abetting the country’s dictatorial regime”.
Goldman has since said its asset-management arm acquired the bonds “on the secondary market from a broker and did not interact with the Venezuelan government.”
