The Attorney General's Office and the Ministry of Defense are evaluating legal actions that prevent the materialization of the action sought by Crystallex, seizing a trust and shares of PDVSA as part of its attempts to collect the $ 1.2 billion allegedly owed Venezuela.

Through a press release from the Attorney General, it is explained that it is false that the country has USD 1,200 million deposited in the Bank of New York Mellon Corp, reason why the execution of the arbitration award dictated the 4 of April of 2016, in accordance with the Supplementary Facility of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which condemned Venezuela to payment of that amount for actions related to the termination of the contract signed for the development and exploration of the Las Cristinas mine, would proceed.

"In this entity is a trust established between the Venezuelan Ministry of Defense and a foreign company to guarantee the obligations derived from the contract to rebuild two frigates. Said trust was frozen in 2002 by order of the Federal Court of Mississippi, within the framework of an arbitration between the Venezuelan State and the manufacturer of warships, as both parties have expressed rights over the resources there.

It is estimated that in this account, established more than a decade ago, could have, at most, about USD 65 million. Also, given the particularities and securities held by the amounts deposited in said trust, these would be for the time being outside the reach of Crystallex, " the text says.