Prosecutor of Venezuela ordered the arrest of 11 executives of the largest bank in the country Banesco
source The parent company of the main private bank in Venezuela, Banesco, in Caracas
The Venezuelan prosecutor's office ordered the arrest of 11 senior executives of the country's main private bank, Banesco, amid an investigation aimed at curbing a parallel exchange market, the attorney general told reporters on Thursday.
A group of the administration of that financial institution is being questioned since Thursday, as reported by the bank on its Twitter account, in what would be the first case against the minimized local bank that starts the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
"It's a very surgical fact," said Attorney General Tarek Saab, to reassure clients of the country's largest deposit bank.
"The alleged responsibility of the members of this senior management (of Banesco) has been determined in a series of irregularities," added the prosecutor, who accused them of covering up the movements of some clients by not reporting them to the authorities.
The Venezuelan government froze thousands of bank accounts of businessmen and people, most of them open in Banesco, considering that they participated in the sale and purchase of foreign currencies in parallel to the strict exchange control that has been in effect for almost 15 years.
As the government has strongly restricted the supply of dollars through the Central Bank, the private sector and the people who send remittances go to a foreign exchange market that offers the US currency at a rate that can be 16 times higher.
Maduro and his officials attribute the high rate of change parallel to the effect of the mafias operating on the border with Colombia to weaken the local currency, while critics believe that it is due to the drought of the official currency and the hyperinflation that lives by first time. once the country.
Hundreds of people have been arrested by the authorities, also accused of extracting bolivars in cash from Colombia for foreign exchange operations, which aggravates the shortage of banknotes that has affected the oil nation in recession for five years.
The prosecutor did not mention whether other executives of Banesco or its owner, Juan Carlos Escotet, based in Spain, would be under investigation. Saab said the detainees could be released after giving their statements.