(Bloomberg) -- Nicolas Maduro’s embattled Venezuelan regime, desperate to hold onto the dwindling cash pile it has abroad, was stymied in its bid to pull $1.2 billion worth of gold out of the Bank of England, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Bank of England’s decision to deny Maduro officials’ withdrawal request comes after top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, lobbied their U.K. counterparts to help cut off the regime from its overseas assets, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified.

The U.K. followed the U.S. and other countries on Wednesday in recognizing Juan Guaido, the National Assembly leader, as the legitimate president of Venezuela. Maduro, an authoritarian ruler who’s overseen the country’s collapse into economic chaos, refuses to give up power, though, and has the backing of the military.

The U.S. officials are now trying to steer Venezuela’s overseas assets to Guaido to help bolster his chances of effectively taking control of the government. The $1.2 billion of gold is a big chunk of the $8 billion in foreign reserves held by the Venezuelan central bank. The whereabouts of much of it is unknown.

Meanwhile, officials at the central bank in Caracas have been ordered to no longer try contacting the Bank of England. These central bankers have been told that Bank of England staffers will not respond to them, citing compliance reasons, said a Venezuelan official, who asked not to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak publicly.

The Bank of England declined to comment on its handling of Venezuelan gold, saying it “provides banking services – including gold custody services – to a large number of customers” and “does not comment on any of those relationships.” The State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment and an NSC spokesman declined to comment. A press official for Maduro also declined to comment.

--With assistance from Eric Martin, Alex Vasquez, Fabiola Zerpa, Jillian Ward and Nick Wadhams.

To contact the reporters on this story: Patricia Laya in Caracas at playa2@bloomberg.net;Ethan Bronner in New York at ebronner@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net, ;Daniel Cancel at dcancel@bloomberg.net, Patricia Laya

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.