Former CEO of Puerto Rico's Nodus Bank Pleads Guilty to $24.9 Million Fraud That Sank the Bank
On March 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Tomás Niembro Concha, the former chief executive officer of Nodus International Bank, a Puerto Rican international bank, had pleaded guilty the day before. Niembro, 64, of Miami, Florida, admitted leading a scheme to fraudulently obtain at least $24.9 million from the bank and conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions against Venezuela; Nodus failed in 2023 and was placed into liquidation by Puerto Rico's Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF).
According to court filings, from 2017 to 2023 Niembro, Board Chairman Juan Ramirez and others concealed from the board and the regulator that the bank invested $11 million in a Miami-based lender so the funds could be loaned to Niembro and Ramirez for their own benefit. Between January 2018 and September 2021, they also induced the bank to buy at least 47 promissory notes totaling about $25.3 million from Nodus Finance, a Miami company the two jointly owned, and used the proceeds themselves. After the regulator gave notice in early March 2023 that the bank would be liquidated, they caused the bank to accept a loan portfolio from Nodus Finance to pay down the notes' debt.
The sanctions leg ran from 2021 to 2023: Niembro conspired with an individual designated as a Specially Designated National by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control for supporting Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA. They arranged an authorized foreclosure on the individual's Southampton, New York, home to satisfy an outstanding loan of about $2.5 million, then privately agreed to have the bank sell the property back to the individual for $4 million through a front company, a transaction prohibited by sanctions and not licensed by OFAC.
Niembro pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, each carrying a maximum of 20 years in prison. Under his plea agreement he agreed to forfeit at least $16.9 million. Sentencing was scheduled for June 8. IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国司法部总部罗伯特·肯尼迪大楼夏日全貌，本案由司法部刑事司与佛罗里达南区联邦检察官办公室起诉。Ajay Suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库。 / Photo: The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington in summer; this case was prosecuted by the Justice Department's Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida. Photo by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed image library.
