TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) – Government officials in Honduras say a bank caught up in a United States money laundering investigation will remain closed until Wednesday and will eventually be liquidated.
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On Sunday, Honduras’ banking regulator said it will take control of Banco Continental and force its liquidation.
The USA indictment that initiated the action also named Jaime Rosenthal’s son Yani, his nephew Yankel, who was arrested in Miami on October 6, and a company lawyer.
The charges come after the U.S. Treasury Department announced that the bank’s parent company, Grupo Continental, and other assets held by the Rosenthals are being listed under the Kingpin Act – us federal legislation that deals with foreign narcotics.
The Rosenthals have denied the accusations.
Banco Continental has 210,000 account holders and 1,000 employees, a few of whom have been lined up outside the bank’s branches since Saturday hoping to get their money.
The hearing Tuesday in Miami for Yankel Rosenthal concerns his potential release on bail and the timing of his removal to New York, where a case against him will be prosecuted. He also owns one of the country’s most successful soccer clubs, Marathón. The denial of access to the USA banking system is fatal for any financial institution, for the bank’s clients are unable to have access to American banks, or its companies, or individuals. Grupo Continental, which includes companies ranging from insurance to meatpacking, has a few 11,000 employees.
Francisco Jose Santa Cruz Pacheco, Pacific Credit Rating’s manager for Central America, said the uncertainty could cause investors to pull their money out of Honduras’ financial sector.
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Banco Continental, the communique added, proposed that the CNBS accept “the voluntary liquidation of the bank” because the “prohibition” on other financial institutions negotiating with the bank “makes it impossible to operate”.
