Two More Private Banks Closed Down, Owner Arrested
Dec. 06, 09 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Hugo Chavez’s promised crack down on Venezuelan private banking system entered a new phase yesterday when the government effectively closed two more banks and arrested one of the owners on charges of embezzlement.
Chacon Escamillo, the president of Banco Real, was detained in the afternoon of Saturday, November 5, after handing himself in,’ the attorney general's office said in a report by Reuters.
The arrested bank owner is supposedly the brother of one the government ministers Jesse Chacon who has worked with Chavez for many years. Chavez already promised to crack down those in the new class of businessmen who use their connections to the government in order to get rich.
The latest arrest brings to five the number of bankers arrested in the past couple of days as the government warns private bankers to straighten up or face nationalization of the whole banking system in Venezuela.
On Monday, Venezuelan authorities jailed Ricardo Fernandez, a billionaire banker, charging him with regulatory problems including unexplained discrepancies over the source of some of the funds.
‘You begin to have doubts when they cannot demonstrate the origin of funds,’ the attorney general's office said. A total of six private banks that handled almost %10 of the country’s financial transactions have been closed so far.
Hugo Chavez government plans to route out the remnants of corruptions and financial mafias from the time when the United States roamed in that part of the world. Chavez has extensive popular support for the clean up task he had long promised Venezuelans to fulfill.
President Chavez encouraged Venezuelans to deposit their money in nationalized banks and as an encouragement increased the interest rate on savings accounts from 12.5% to 14%. “I recommend that you leave [your money] in the Bank of Venezuela... it is more secure there than the reserves in the Orinoco [Oil Belt],” said Chavez, referring to Venezuela’s vast extra-heavy oil reserves.
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