-the chinese (and a few others) have the cash, and there's the fung connection but i dont see them jumping into LC without a permit in hand...who would at this point?

That is my personal favorite. Fung uses his Chinese contacts to make a deal that is acceptable to both KRY (since the Chinese have the money and want to dump paper dollars for hard assets) and Hugo (since China is not part of the "imperialist US empire).