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How a Miami Bank Allegedly Helped Venezuela’s Dictator Evade U.S. Sanctions

Pese a negociaciones con el régimen de Maduro, Administración Biden teme detenciones arbitrarias de sus ciudadanos en Venezuela

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Eastern National Bank, a small bank in Miami, is alleged to have intentionally helped the regime of Nicolás Maduro to evade sanctions imposed by the Department of the Treasury, according to a lawsuit in a South Florida federal court in which minority shareholders of the bank decided to sue members of the board of directors.

Eastern National Bank has about $260 million in assets and four branches in South Florida, including Miami, Hialeah and Doral.

A report by El Nuevo Herald reveals “according to the plaintiffs, 99% of the bank’s shares belong to a company controlled by Nicolás Maduro’s regime. It is Mercorp, a Curaçao-registered company that belongs to Corpfin, a corporation intervened by the Venezuelan tyranny.

Among the defendants are Gabina Rodríguez, who chaired the bank’s board of directors after having been appointed as the controller of Corpfin, and also the directors and former directors of the bank: Louis Ferreira, César Gómez, Keith Parker, Carlos Rodríguez and Gustavo Macías.

“Rodriguez is an agent of the sanctioned Maduro regime in Venezuela, and as long as he remains in complete control of ENB, the Maduro regime will have access to the U.S. financial system, allowing Maduro to evade OFAC sanctions,” states the lawsuit filed by the bank’s minority shareholders.

El Nuevo Herald reports that “the minority shareholders allege that Eastern’s directors have breached their fiduciary duties, causing damage to the bank and harming the institution’s shareholder value.”

The plaintiffs claim that Eastern helped the regime maintain access to the international financial system after “all american banks” closed their correspondent banking relationship with Banco de Venezuela by opening and maintaining such an account with the state-owned bank.

Although the lawsuit is in court, the bank denied having been under the control of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

El Nuevo Herald published an article about a lawsuit filed by Juan Santaella, a disgruntled minority shareholder of Eastern National Bank (that) echoes the false accusation made by Mr. Santaella in his lawsuit that the Maduro regime in Venezuela used Eastern as a conduit to access the U.S. banking system”, the bank said in a statement.

“This is patently false and ignores the reality that Eastern is a U.S. chartered financial institution that has been operating for 53 years under the supervision and approval of U.S. regulatory agencies. Eastern obtained the required approvals and authorizations from both the OCC and OFAC to operate legally in the U.S. and continues to work to effectively serve the South Florida community”, it added.


Editor’s note: The quotes used in this article were translated from Spanish to English for publication.

Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo

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