Venezuela loses UK appeal in long-running gold reserves battle

LONDON (Reuters) - The Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) board controlled by the government of President Nicolas Maduro on Friday lost its latest appeal over $1.95 billion of the country's gold reserves held in the Bank of England's underground vaults.

The BCV was challenging a previous ruling that certain decisions of Venezuela's top court should not be recognised by English courts in the gold case.

Lawyers representing the Venezuelan central bank in the challenge said it will now be returned to London's High Court to determine what happens next, now former Venezuela opposition leader Juan Guaido is no longer recognised by Britain's government as the country's leader.

Guaido's interim presidency ended late last year and the opposition national assembly is now headed by exiled lawmaker Dinorah Figuera.

New opposition leadership is anxiously awaiting approvals to allow distribution of foreign funds, especially those located in the United States.

The BCV had taken up the case three years ago saying it wanted to sell the gold, which amounts to around 15% of Venezuela's foreign currency reserves, to fund the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Marc Jones in London, additional reporting by Mayela Armas in Caracas; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)