Venezuelan banker from Nodus Bank sentenced to 62 months for $23.6 million fraud
Juan Francisco Ramírez, former president of Nodus International Bank in Puerto Rico, received a sentence of 62 months in prison for diverting more than $23.6 million in bank funds.
Federal conviction of former Nodus Bank executive for million-dollar fraud scheme
Juan Francisco Ramírez, a 60-year-old Venezuelan banker and Miami resident, was sentenced on 7 October to 62 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a fraud scheme that caused losses of at least $23.6 million to Nodus International Bank, an entity that operated in Puerto Rico, elnuevodia.com reported.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) specified that Ramírez served as former chairman of the board of directors and co-owner of Nodus International Bank (Nodus Bank). The court also ordered the forfeiture of approximately $13.6 million, equivalent to the proceeds obtained through the conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Guilty plea and charges
In September 2025, Ramírez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, presented by indictment. According to court documents, Ramírez acted in conjunction with other accomplices to divert funds from the bank, concealing the irregular operations from both other board members and the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF), Puerto Rico's regulatory agency.
"This defendant abused the trust of his bank's depositors and, when the institution collapsed, innocent people lost their savings," declared Deputy Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, of the Criminal Division of the federal Department of Justice.
Federal prosecutor Jason A. Reding Quiñones, of the Southern District of Florida, was more direct: "Ramírez was entrusted with the management of a bank. Instead, he plundered it." Reding Quiñones noted that Ramírez "secretly diverted millions of dollars from the institution's funds to benefit his associates and himself, causing losses approaching $24 million and contributing to the bank's collapse."
The scheme: fictitious investments and irregular promissory notes
Between 2017 and 2023, Ramírez and his accomplices invested more than $11 million of Nodus Bank's funds in a credit facility based in Miami, for the purpose of that entity lending the money back to Ramírez and his accomplice for personal benefit. According to the DOJ, the parties involved were aware of the illegality of the transactions and took active measures to conceal them through fictitious investments.
Between January 2018 and September 2021, Ramírez and an accomplice induced Nodus Bank's board of directors and comptroller to approve the purchase of at least 47 promissory notes, totalling approximately $25.3 million, from a financial company based in Miami that both owned jointly. Although the promissory notes supposedly financed loans to legitimate persons or businesses, the funds were used for personal benefit: personal investments in third-party companies, payment of personal mortgages and credit card expenses.
Bank collapse and final manoeuvre
In early March 2023, OCIF notified Nodus Bank of its intention to initiate a liquidation process. Later that month, the bank agreed to voluntarily submit to the process.
On 28 April 2023, days before liquidation was to begin and without OCIF authorisation, Ramírez and his accomplice caused Nodus Bank to purchase a loan portfolio of approximately $26 million from the financial company that both owned in Miami. Most of those loans were in default, generated no payments and lacked adequate collateral, according to the DOJ.
With that transaction, the debt that the financial company owed to Nodus Bank—arising from the 47 promissory notes acquired between 2018 and 2021—was settled, directly benefiting the defendants. The total losses caused to Nodus Bank reached at least $23,613,371.
The banking entity has been in liquidation proceedings before OCIF for more than three years, according to previous elnuevodia.com reports.
Cumulative sentence for CEO and IRS reaction
Ramírez's sentence is added to that of Tomás Niembro Concha, principal executive officer (CEO) and majority shareholder of Nodus Bank, who was convicted of more than nine years in prison for his participation in the case.
Charles Miller, interim special agent in charge of the Criminal Investigation field office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS-CI) in Florida, underscored that "financial frauds can be complex, but the law is simple: conduct business honestly and protect your depositors, or you will have to answer to justice." Miller added that IRS special agents "will continue promoting transparency in complex financial crimes and protecting confidence in the banking system."
Source: Google News PR — Crime