Puerto Rican banker pleads guilty to more than $13.6 million in fraud charges

Washington D.C. - The chairman of the board of directors of Puerto Rican international bank Nodus, Juan Francisco Ramirez, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Miami, Florida, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of a scheme to defraud the financial institution he led of more than $13.6 million.

"The defendant abused his position as chairman of the board of directors to fraudulently divert funds from the bank he was charged with leading, resulting in the bank's collapse," said Department of Justice Acting Assistant Secretary in charge of the Criminal Division Matthew Galeotti.

Ramirez faces up to 20 years in prison. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

In pleading guilty, Ramirez agreed to forfeiture of $13.6 million, believed to be his proceeds from the fraud.

According to federal prosecutors, Ramirez, 60, conspired, between 2017 and 2023, with others to divert $11 million in Nodus funds to a Miami financial institution so that it could then give them in loans to him and an accomplice.

Ramirez and an accomplice concealed from other members of Nodus' management and the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF) that these investments were for their benefit, in violation of Puerto Rican law and his company's insider trading rules.

In addition, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, "between January 2018 and September 2021, Ramirez and an accomplice fraudulently induced Nodus' board of directors and comptroller to accept or facilitate the purchase of at least 47 promissory notes totaling approximately $25.3 million from a Miami-based finance company, of which Ramirez and his accomplice were co-owners."

OCIF informed Nodus in March 2023 of its intention to liquidate the bank, to which the company agreed.

In response, Ramirez and an accomplice forced Nodus to purchase a portfolio of loans valued at $26 million from its Miami financier, despite the fact that most of the loans were delinquent and unsecured.

The acquisition of the loan portfolio represented the repayment of debt on 47 promissory notes purchased by Ramirez, between 2018 and 2021. 2021.