Venezuela moves bank accounts after Exxon embargo : US Business

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has moved its export payment accounts to UBS bank in Switzerland, traders said on Monday, after Exxon Mobil Corp secured an embargo of up to $12 billion of PDVSA's global assets.

Exxon Mobil won rulings from courts in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands that froze assets belonging to PDVSA in order to ensure compensation for President Hugo Chavez's takeover of a multibillion-dollar oil project last year.

A central bank director in Curacao said Exxon lawyers had told banks that one of the court rulings meant they had to at least maintain the current level of funds PDVSA holds in any account in the Netherlands Antilles island.

"It all has to go to UBS in Switzerland now," said one trader who asked not to be identified.

A PDVSA spokesman said he did not have immediate comment on the issue.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Robert Campbell, editing by Matthew Lewis)

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