Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bancredito International Bank & Trust, Julio M. Herrera Velutini, He resigned this Thursday from that position and from the governance of the international banking unit (EBI) after a federal grand jury filed multiple charges for conspiracy and bribery.
In a written statement sent to this newspaper, The financial institution founded in 2009 by Herrera Velutini has highlighted that the charges brought this Thursday by the federal prosecutor’s office in San Juan are not directed against him and Bancredito continues to operate as normal.
“The bank continues to operate as normal and works closely with banking authorities at the Puerto Rico and federal level,” reads the statement from the institution, which is headquartered in Hato Rey.
IBEs are financial institutions that are authorized by OCIF to establish themselves in Puerto Rico and provide services overseas.
In the case of Bancredito, EBI does business in Panama, the Bahamas, and some states such as Florida and New York.
This Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted a Venezuelan banker and economist on six charges, including conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud and artifice to obstruct the right to honest services. According to the indictment, Herrera Velutini has accused former governor Wanda Vazquez Garced, former public housing administrator John Blakeman, former Bancredito Frances president and CEO M. Diaz and adviser and former federal agent Mark T. Rossini, so that the President is removed. From the direction of George Joyner’s Office of the Commissioner for Financial Institutions (OCIF) and that regulator, it took several corrective actions to relieve Bancredito that were required to comply with Puerto Rico’s Entities Law International Banking Institutions. Federal Bank Secrecy Rules or BSA, in English.
For more than three decades, Herrera Velutini has been at the helm of banking institutions and investment firms in Venezuela and Europe. In 2009, he left his native country in the midst of the economic crisis there and the process of nationalization of banks and other companies promoted by the government of Hugo Chávez and continued by Nicolás Maduro.
There, according to a complaint accepted before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, one of the institutions directed by Herrera Velutini, called Banco Real-Banco de Desarolo, went bankrupt when, in 2009, the banker took his The shares were sold to the Chávez government, leading to accusations against him. According to the story of that international forum, the condition of Banco Real was so bad and uneducated that once it came under government control, the superintendent of banks in that country was forced to intervene.
Following Bancredito’s founding in Puerto Rio, various recent publications and journalistic reviews have listed Herrera Velutini as the place to do business in London.
This Thursday, the federal prosecutor for the District of Puerto Rico, Stephen Muldrow, indicated that the federal prosecutor’s office would begin an extradition process against the banker and his adviser Rossini, in order to respond to the charges against them.
Since 2015, Bancredito claims to have been the victim of a “fun” harassment process by the OCIF, a situation that, according to the allegation, led Herrera Velutini to use his influence and funds to obstruct the state regulator’s oversight work. would be inspired to do.
After repeated violations of OCIF guidelines last May, the regulator issued an order for voluntary liquidation of EBIs, a process still underway.
Last May, Herrera Velutini’s lawyer, Luis Delgado, denied that his client had invested in the political campaign of Vázquez Garcád and made any allegations against him related to Banco Real in Venezuela.
