Julio Herrera Velutini resigns from Pancredito following federal bribery charges along with Wanda Vasquez

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pancredito International Bank and Trust, Julio M. Herrera Velutini, He resigned from that position and from the management of the international banking company on Thursday (EBI) after a federal grand jury filed multiple charges of conspiracy and bribery.

In a written statement sent to the newspaper in this regard, The financial firm founded by Herrera Velutini in 2009 highlighted that the charges released this Thursday by the federal prosecutor’s office in San Juan were not against him and Pancredito continued to operate.

“The bank continues to operate and works closely and cooperatively with banking authorities at the Puerto Rico and federal level,” said a statement from the Hatto Rey-headquartered company.

IBEs are financial institutions authorized by OCIF to establish themselves in Puerto Rico and provide services abroad.

In the case of Bancrédito, EBI maintains business in Panama, the Bahamas and certain states such as Florida and New York.

This Thursday, A federal grand jury The Venezuelan banker and economist faces six charges, including conspiracy, bribery and electronic fraud, and art of obstructing the right to honest services. According to the indictment, Herrera Velutini conspired with former Gov Wanda Vasquez GarstuFormer Public Housing Administrator, John BlakemanFormer Chairman and CEO of Pancredito, Francis M. Diaz and consultant and former federal agent Mark D. Rossini was thus removed from the direction of the presidency. Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF) asked then-Commissioner George Joyner to get the regulator to exempt Bancrédito from several corrective actions required to comply with Puerto Rico’s International Banking Corporations Act and the Federal Bank Secrecy Regulation, or BSA.

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 fled his home country amid an economic crisis and government-sponsored nationalization of banks and other institutions. Hugo Chavez And Nicolás Maduro continued.

There, according to an agreed complaint before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, one of the companies Herrera Velutini directed, Banco Real-Banco de Desarrollo, went bankrupt in 2009 when the banker sold his shares to the Chávez government. This led to charges against him. According to the story of that international forum, Banco Real’s condition was so bad and illiquid that the country’s superintendent of banks was forced to intervene once it went under government control.

After establishing Pancredito in Puerto Rio, various recent publications and press reviews lead Herrera Velutini to do business in London.

This Thursday, Stephen Muldrow, the federal prosecutor for the district of Puerto Rico, indicated that the federal prosecutor’s office will begin the extradition process against the banker and his adviser Rossini, so that they answer the charges against them.

Bancrédito says that since 2015, he has been the victim of OCIF’s “capricious” harassment process, which, according to the accusation, may have prompted Herrera Velutini to use his influence and money to obstruct the state regulator’s supervisory work.

After repeated violations of OCIF guidelines last May, the regulator issued Order of Voluntary Liquidation Of EBI, a process is still underway.

Last May, Herrera Velutini’s lawyer, Luis Delgado, rejected his client Vázquez invested in a political campaign against Garced and any charges against him related to Banco Real in Venezuela.