The banking sector that turns its back on its friends

 The banking sector that turns its back on its friends:-

Bancamiga has experienced explosive growth within Venezuela's admittedly tiny financial sector. Much of its expansion occurred after Washington imposed sanctions on Samark López, a turning point that led two associates of the controversial businessman, José Chacín Bello and Ariel Martínez, to join the bank—albeit at different times—one as a major shareholder, the other as a high-ranking executive. Contrary to what this might suggest, both the bank and López himself deny any connection between them. 

Anyone unfamiliar with the history of Bancamiga's shareholders and directors will see the trajectory of this financial institution and that of Samark José López Bello as two paths with diametrically opposed directions. While the controversial Venezuelan contractor was beginning to see his business empire crumble in various jurisdictions—following sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in February 2017, which portrayed him as the "front man" for then-Vice President of Venezuela, Tarek El Aissami—the financial institution was embarking on a sustained rise that would lead it to boast the highest growth rates in the sector in Venezuela in recent years, a stark contrast to the decline experienced by the financial sector after eight years of recession and four of hyperinflation. 

However, these lines with opposite directions intersect in two figures: one, that of José Esteban Chacín Bello, cousin and close partner of Samark López, who became one of the main shareholders of the bank in mid-2015, a position he continued to hold, at least, until March 2019; the second is that of the Argentine accountant Ariel José Martínez Coujil, business partner of Chacín Bello and former employee of Profit Corporation, CA, one of López's companies sanctioned in 2017, and current executive president of Bancamiga. 

The Pandora Papers, the leak of 11.9 million documents from 14 offshore service providers for company registration and administration, originally received by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with 150 other media outlets in 117 countries—including Armando.info —reveal that Chacín Bello and Martínez were key figures in the network of companies belonging to Samark López, which the OFAC sanctioned on charges of money laundering and providing “financial support” to El Aissami, Venezuela’s current Minister of Petroleum, whom US authorities link to drug trafficking.   

Despite what this transaction might suggest, both Bancamiga and López denied to Armando.info that the latter has any involvement with the institution. “Neither Mr. Samark López, nor any of his companies, have any corporate ties whatsoever with Bancamiga BU, and any connection that might be made based on other kinds of relationships is, at the very least, biased, malicious, and therefore baseless,” Ariel Martínez stated in a written statement. 

Lopez, through his lawyers, sued the Treasury Department in June 2021 in a federal court in Washington, claiming he is the victim of a “false campaign.” His legal representatives estimated Lopez’s losses from the sanctions against him at $160 million, adding that “his livelihood has been seriously threatened.” A report by the U.S. Spanish-language television network Univision , meanwhile, estimated the value of the assets seized from Lopez at around $500 million and revealed that a group of American victims of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) asked a federal court in Miami to freeze these assets, alleging that Lopez provided “indirect” financial assistance to the group through his connection to El Aissami. 

Among the assets that the victims of the FARC requested be seized to pay them $318 million in compensation are a Gulfstream 200 jet, a mansion López bought in Florida for $16.5 million, two yachts, a 2014 Rolls-Royce, a Bentley Continental Coupe, a Ferrari, and a Cadillac Escalade, among others. The court has already authorized the sale of some of these properties so that the proceeds go to the plaintiffs. López's legal team has vehemently denied that he has any connection to drug trafficking. In a letter in English addressed to the journalist who wrote this article, Alexei Schacht, one of the lawyers representing López in the United States, added that his client's designation on the OFAC list was due to "false statements made by government representatives, but was also caused in part by media figures with their own agenda."

New shareholders, new headquarters

Beyond these claims from the bank and López, the explosive growth of Bancamiga from 2015 onwards is a verifiable fact. In June of that year, its shareholders' meeting agreed to increase its capital from 35 million bolivars (about 3.5 million dollars at the time) to 255 million bolivars (25.5 million dollars at the time) and accept the entry of new shareholders, including Samark López's cousin. 

Chacín Bello was then unknown to the business community and to public opinion, which only became aware of his name a year and eight months later, when he was also affected by the sanctions imposed on López and announced by Washington.  

Thus, Chacín became Bancamiga's second-largest shareholder with 16.75% of the shares, tied with José Luis Queijeiro Taboada, both holding 42.725 million shares and surpassed only by the Guyanese lawyer Carmelo de Grazia, who acquired 82,425,780 (32.32%) shares. Another newcomer to the shareholding structure was Armando Iachini, owner of Constructora Yamaro, with 19.8 million shares (7.76%).

The capital increase also allowed Bancamiga to purchase the assets and liabilities of Novo Banco in the country (the bank created by the Portuguese state with the remaining assets of the intervened Banco Espirito Santo (BES), through which funds from the Odebrecht bribery scheme in Venezuela and billions of dollars from PDVSA and other entities of the Chavista state passed). This operation began in 2017 and was completed in February 2018. The sale included the transfer of Novo Banco's headquarters in Caracas, an office tower located in La Castellana, a commercial and financial district in the northeast of the city.

The sale of these assets had a curious prelude that pitted BES, later renamed Novo Banco, against one of Bancamiga's future shareholders. Carmelo De Grazia, a lawyer with extensive experience in the financial sector, was a shareholder in the Panamanian brokerage firm Intersecurities International Inc., which, as Armando.info reported , conducted $56 million in transactions involving Continental Bank of Barbados and JP Morgan Chase in 2014. The latter institution filed Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Treasury Department, deeming these transfers opaque and linked to the Venezuelan black market for foreign currency. This black market was then fueled by strict exchange controls, which were exploited by some businesspeople close to the government who benefited from the sale of foreign currency at preferential rates.

In his response to a questionnaire from this publication, lawyer Pedro de Mezquita, former director of Intersecurities, denied any irregularities in those transactions and indicated that they corresponded to “the liquidation or sale of a client's securities position” for $25 million, purchased from Rio Forte Group, a subsidiary of BES. This led to a legal dispute that ended in a settlement with the Intersecurities client, whose name Mezquita did not disclose. 

Mezquita denied at the time that Bancamiga's acquisition of the bank's headquarters was part of a deal to pay off the debt that the Portuguese institution had with the company represented by De Grazia; the truth is that this transaction occurred after the arrival of the lawyer, and of Chacín Bello, to the Bancamiga shareholders' meeting.

While all this was happening, the bank's expansion plans were progressing smoothly with regulatory bodies. On June 30, 2016, the Higher Body of the National Financial System (Osfin), attached to the Venezuelan Ministry of Economy and Finance, approved Bancamiga's capital increase. The plans included transforming the then-microfinance bank into the current Bancamiga Universal Bank, a change that was finally approved by the Superintendency of Banking Sector Institutions (Sudeban) on September 14, 2017.

In the last four years, the bank rose from 23rd to 7th place in the Sudeban asset ranking. By December 2021, Bancamiga ranked as the third bank with the most foreign currency deposits, with nearly $90 million, surpassing traditional Venezuelan banks such as Provincial, Bancaribe, and Banesco. The forced dollarization of the country, which flourished amidst accusations from Nicolás Maduro's embattled government of an economic blockade by the United States, was particularly advantageous for the bank, whose foreign currency services include accounts, cards, and point-of-sale terminals. 

The shareholder will not be mentioned

According to Martínez, its CEO, the bank currently has 400,000 clients. A press release from the institution states that on April 22, Bancamiga opened its 30th branch, a move that contrasts sharply with other banks that have had to close several offices and reduce their staff as a result of the economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Among Bancamiga's new branches, the one inaugurated in May 2021 at the La Rinconada Racetrack , the largest horse racing venue in Venezuela, stands out. This new branch fueled rumors of the bank's ties to the Maduro regime, as the permit required approval from the National Institute of Racetracks (INH), currently headed by former presidential candidate, member of parliament, and Chavista official, baseball player, and singer Antonio " El Potro" Álvarez.

Chacín Bello, De Grazia, Queijeiro, and Iachini would gradually gain total control of the financial institution. According to Bancamiga documents accessed for this report, Chacín Bello still appeared as a shareholder, with the same capital, at the shareholders' meeting held on March 26, 2019. The documents then lead to another meeting on March 16, 2020, in which Chacín Bello disappears, leaving only De Grazia (41.59%), Queijeiro (49.47%), Iachini (7.77%), and Alberto de Armas, who held 1% of the capital, as shareholders. The last shareholders' meeting minutes reviewed by Armando.info were from January 18, 2021, in which this shareholding percentage remained almost unchanged.

Martínez is a 59-year-old accountant born in Rosario, Argentina, who holds both Argentine and Spanish citizenship. He has worked for nearly 40 years in the financial sector and capital markets. He lived in Venezuela and has served on the boards of directors of Venezuelan financial institutions for at least ten years, currently as CEO of Bancamiga, although he resides in Spain. 

The Pandora Papers leak includes a Know Your Customer (KYC) declaration form —one of the controls used by banks and corporate services firms to combat money laundering—dated December 23, 2016, from Amicorp Group, an international fiduciary services provider where Martínez was a client. In this document, the Argentine stated that his income came from his work at Profit Corporation CA. 

This is a Venezuelan engineering company founded in 1990 and acquired by López and his Venezuelan partners in 2010. In addition to being among the companies sanctioned by OFAC, it was a frequent contractor for the state-owned oil company PDVSA. The National Registry of Contractors (RNC) lists 26 contracts with PDVSA and two of its subsidiaries, PDVSA Gas and PDVSA Petróleo.

When asked about the Amicorp Group document and his connection to López, Martínez told this publication that he served as “controller” for Profit Corporation, CA, for six years and that in 2016 he decided to resign from that company and emigrate to Spain. “Aside from this employment relationship with the aforementioned company during the period 2010-2016, I have not had any other joint activity within the scope of my professional practice,” he stated. 

In his responses to the questionnaire sent to the current CEO of Bancamiga, Martínez addresses Chacín Bello's connection to the bank: “I have no knowledge that Mr. Chacín 'held important positions at Bancamiga' as you state in your question,” he replies. “However, giving me the benefit of the doubt and motivated by your emphatic assertion, I reviewed the Bank's records prior to my joining. I can assure you that there is no record whatsoever in the Institution's Management records of what you claim.”

On March 16, Armando.info sent a new communication indicating the details of the assembly in which Chacín Bello's entry as a shareholder was approved and asking for more precision regarding the date of his departure, but, as of the date of publication of this note, no response was received.

Family businesses

The relationship between Chacín Bello and Samark López, on the other hand, is not only familial but also business-related. The Pandora Papers indicate that the two have been business partners since at least 2013 and have shared positions as shareholders, directors, or legal representatives in at least five offshore companies. In his response to Armando.info , Samark López asserted that his cousin was part of his business group until 2016. “After the sanctions of February 2017, we have not maintained any type of commercial and/or professional relationship . ” He also denied having any ties to Bancamiga. “Only with authorization from SUDEBAN can individuals or legal entities own shares, and neither my companies nor I have requested approval to invest in the Venezuelan banking sector,” he stated.

That year, 2016, which according to López was the last year Chacín Bello was part of his business structure, was especially busy for both of them, according to the documents. Less than a month after the approval of Bancamiga's capital increase by the Financial Oversight and Management Office (OSFIN), Samark López and Chacín Bello were also directing other multi-million dollar transactions outside of Venezuela related to two offshore companies.

Among the documents in the Pandora Papers leak is a draft, dated July 21, 2016, outlining the plan to liquidate 1000 Investment Group Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands in March 2013.

An exchange of emails between Salcedo Attorneys at Law, a Miami-based law firm representing Samark López, and Trident, one of the world's largest offshore corporate services providers, which acted as the registered agent for the controversial businessman's companies, indicates that López and Chacín were the initial shareholders and directors of 1000 Investment Group Limited. López held 45,000 shares and Chacín 5,000, but the day after the company's registration, they both transferred these shares to Yakima Trading Corp., another of López's companies that was sanctioned by OFAC in February 2017. A similar situation occurred with the board of directors, as the cousins ​​were replaced by Amaury José Salazar Gibory and María Eugenia Rodríguez Pinto, who have held executive positions in other López companies.

Among the documents is also a statement of assets and liabilities for 1000 Investment Group, indicating that it had a capital of $175.22 million, all of which consisted of receivables . The email exchange, however, does not explain the final destination of these assets. The person in charge of liquidating this company was none other than Ariel Martínez, the current CEO of Bancamiga, who at the time was an employee of López.

In the letter sent by López through his lawyers, he states that the liquidation could not be finalized due to OFAC sanctions and that the company did not provide services to state institutions. “It was being carried out as part of estate planning that was necessary given that several of my children are American citizens and my wife was residing with them in the United States . ”

Regarding the company's large capital balance, he stated that "it corresponds to a debt owed to an operating subsidiary of 1000 Investments Group, which was never collected, and this amount went from being an asset to an uncollectible debt." He reiterated that, as the holding company for this subsidiary, 1000 Investments never provided services to the Venezuelan state, and that López himself has no active contracts with the government. When questioned about the name of the subsidiary he was referring to, López did not specify and simply stated that these debts were unrelated to the Venezuelan state.

But the Pandora Papers provide a clue. The leak reveals that 1000 Investment Group Limited had a subsidiary—of which it was, in fact, the sole shareholder—Postar Intertrade Limited, a company controlled by López and listed by the same directors: María Eugenia Rodríguez Pinto and Amaury Salazar. Its legal representative was Chacín Bello. Registered in 2013 in the British Virgin Islands and moved to Barbados by the time of the aforementioned liquidation project, it was used by Samark López to sign multimillion-dollar food import contracts for the Local Committees for Supply and Production (CLAP), a socio-clientelistic program for distributing subsidized food, conceived and implemented by the Nicolás Maduro government, and riddled with allegations of overpricing and corruption . Postar also acted as an intermediary in government imports of construction materials and even Christmas trees.

The shareholder of 1000 Investment was, in turn, Yakima Trading Corp., belonging to Samark López, who also secured several contracts with the state-owned oil company PDVSA for the import of construction materials and other supplies, such as steel coils, steel shot, and welding wire. In the trial where victims of the FARC requested the seizure of López's assets, it was indicated that this company held a $270 million bank account at Citibank, which was subsequently frozen. Furthermore, López's lawyers told Univision that PDVSA owes their client hundreds of millions of dollars. Documents obtained through the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) indicate that 1000 Investment Group is inactive and that the firm Trident resigned as its registered agent in July 2019.

By the time 1000 Investment Group was planning its liquidation, Yakima had also been transferred from Panama to Barbados, and shortly thereafter, in February 2017, it appeared among those sanctioned by OFAC. The López Bello and Chacín Bello family duo again appear on its board of directors. In a previous investigation , López's legal advisors told Armando.info that the controversial businessman had decided to redomiciliate several of his companies in Barbados due to the tax advantages of that Caribbean island, known as a tax haven. In his response for this report, López added that all his companies in that jurisdiction were dissolved after the sanctions, "due to his inability to pay the annual registration fees and the resignation of the registered agent."

Nevis, the new (tax) paradise

Barbados was not the only destination chosen by López to relocate his companies. The Pandora Papers also attest to the interest of Alcedo Fahie, then director of the British Virgin Islands Financial Investigation Agency (FIA)—the financial intelligence unit of this tax haven, which investigates potential irregularities and financial crimes and receives requests for information from authorities in other countries with which it shares information—in two companies in that jurisdiction whose ultimate beneficiary was López: MFAA Holdings Limited and 200G PSA Holdings LTD, both on the OFAC list, under allegations that they were part of a money laundering scheme in the United States.

Fahie sent Trident a request for information about these companies on June 20, 2018, more than a year after the OFAC sanctions. The leak does not detail the reason for the investigation. MFAA Holdings Limited is associated with the acquisition of two of López's properties in the United States, including the $16.5 million mansion seized by authorities, which has nine bedrooms and is located in the exclusive Gables Estates development on the Biscayne Bay coast in Florida. 

In response to the FIA's request for information, Trident notes that in August 2015 the company was moved to Saint Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean island nation with just 11,000 inhabitants.

Upon registering in Nevis, MFAA Holdings Limited had to change its name to MFAA Assets LTD and switch registered agent to Morning Star Holdings Limited, a firm specializing in corporate services for companies registering on the island. Official documents from the Nevis Companies Registry, obtained through OCCRP, established that this company was officially incorporated in that jurisdiction on April 15, 2016, just three days before the purchase of the luxurious mansion in South Florida. The company was removed from the registry on July 31, 2018, a month after the director of the British Virgin Islands Financial Investigation Agency received information about its change of address.  

Bill Barnard, founder of Morning Star and a close ally of Nevis authorities, is credited with drafting the island's business legislation modeled after that of Delaware, a US state with tax haven characteristics. This fact, along with the extreme secrecy surrounding business records—promoted as an advantage by Morning Star on its website—has made the island a target of criticism for its weak anti-money laundering controls. 

When asked about the reason for the change of jurisdiction, López denied that the purpose was to hide the ownership of his assets. “My properties have always been held in corporate structures whose ultimate beneficiaries are myself , my wife, and my children. There was never any secret about the ownership of my properties.” He explained that the British Virgin Islands is “included on the list of low-tax jurisdictions issued” by the Integrated Customs and Tax Administration Service (SENIAT) of Venezuela, which “has severe tax consequences” for taxpayers who have investments in that jurisdiction. Like Barbados, Nevis is not on SENIAT’s blacklist. “I would like to clarify that before the re-domiciliation of my companies from the BVI to Nevis and from Panama to Barbados, a declaration was made and all accumulated taxes resulting from the global income generated by my companies were paid to SENIAT,” he added.  

200G PSA Holdings LTD is a company registered in the state of Delaware. US authorities indicated that the Gulfstream 200 aircraft was “owned or controlled” by a shell company of this corporation, 200G PSA Holdings LLC, registered in Florida. This aircraft was seized by order of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) following the sanctions imposed in February 2017. When asked about the activities of the Delaware company, López responded that it “provided management services for the aircraft it owned.” 

In its response to the British Virgin Islands FIA, Trident stated that it was unaware whether these two companies were part of a trust structure or held bank accounts. However, in the firm's internal email exchange, there is a document listing the "registered members" of 200G PSA Holdings LTD, with " Samark José López Bello as Trustee of SLB Trust " listed as the sole member. This document was sent on February 17, 2017, among members of the firm, at a time when they were preparing to relinquish some of López's companies after learning of the OFAC sanctions. Why didn't Trident inform the FIA ​​about this trust in its communication to Fahie? Did it send any additional information about this trust in a subsequent communication? 

In its response for this story, Trident stated only that it does not discuss its clients with the media, but that it “routinely” cooperates with the relevant authorities that request information. “[ Trident ] is fully committed to all applicable regulations, including local and international legal obligations related to sanctions orders and other associated restrictions.”   

For his part, López told Armando.info that the SLB Trust is a trust regulated by Florida state law. “It was created for my family and corporate estate planning. The beneficiaries are my wife and children. It's basically a substitute for a will and is not a separate entity, so it's not 'registered'.” 

Regarding the activities of other companies in his business group, which are mentioned in the emails, López commented that Sea MFAA Corp. and Nautical Corp., both registered in the Cayman Islands, had as their only asset the ownership of a vessel “for personal use”, while another company, named Beach Founders Holdings Corp., registered on the island of Nevis, “was going to be used for a real estate investment that never materialized”.

A contractor with uncollectible debts

The other company in liquidation, as reflected in the documents, is Ivycity Worldwide Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands in November 2013, and whose sole shareholder is, again, Yakima Trading Corp. When asked about the purpose of this entity, López indicated that it was “a holding company ” for one of its “operating companies” and that the liquidation could not be carried out due to the sanctions. 

Ivycity's capital at the time of its liquidation project also consisted of "accounts receivable" and amounted to $908,875. "It was a loan between companies within the group to capitalize one of the group's operating companies, of which Ivycity Worldwide was the sole shareholder," López explained in his responses, without specifying which other company it was. However, this company was one of the " members " of Yakima Oil Trading LLP, a UK-registered company that also appeared among those sanctioned by OFAC.

In the spreadsheet that the Salcedo law firm sent to Trident to initiate the liquidation of Ivycity, Samark López is described by his lawyers as a “commodities industry businessman ” (raw materials, such as food or construction materials, the sectors that earned him multimillion-dollar contracts with the Chavista regime through Postar and Yakima Trading Corp.). They indicate that Ivycity was a “partner” of Yakima Oil Trading LLP, which they describe as a company dedicated to oil trading. The accountant Ariel Martínez is again listed as the liquidator.

Martínez is listed as an executive at Property Re Group Corp., a company registered in Barbados on September 1, 2015, along with a Venezuelan named Oswaldo Stephan D Jesús Rivero Rivera. Data provided by OCCRP, and confirmed through the Florida state property registry, establishes that Rivero Rivera has a business relationship with José Esteban Chacín Bello in the real estate sector. 

Chacín Bello appears as the legal representative of a Nevis-based company called Match Worldwide Investments Corp. This offshore company served as the director of two companies that, in turn, were listed as owners of properties in Florida. The first is an apartment in the One Tequesta Point residences in Miami's Brickell financial district, which had belonged to Chacín Bello and his wife, Dibsi Helen Suárez Boekhoudt. In 2017, they transferred it to Match 712, LLC, a company whose last director, replacing the Nevis company, was Suárez Boekhoudt. The Florida company sold the property on November 17, 2020, for $620,000 to Maxori Trust, in which the Venezuelan Rivero and his wife, Anna Zakharova—a Florida real estate agent—are listed as trustees. The ultimate beneficiary of this trust is unknown. 

The second apartment is in the Baltus House residences located on Biscayne Boulevard, an avenue lined with luxury condominiums that runs along the bayfront from downtown Miami to the northeast of the city. The company Match 919 LLC—in which Nevis's company is once again replaced as an executive by Chacín Bello's wife—purchased the apartment in June 2015 for $484,900. The property was sold on May 7, 2020, for a mere $350,000 to María de los Ángeles Cárdenas. The transfer document was prepared by Yamilet Estévez, an attorney with Salcedo Attorneys at Law, which suggests that even if the cousins ​​no longer maintain business ties—as López claims—they still use the same law firm.  

There is a third property involving the trust that purchased one of the apartments formerly owned by Chacín Bello and his wife. It is a house of over 4,000 square meters located in Pinecrest, a Miami-Dade suburb known for its high property prices. In December 2017, the property was purchased for $1.23 million by Oswaldo Rivero and Anna Zakharova, who listed the Florida office of Salcedo Attorneys at Law as their personal address in the registry. On June 19, 2018, the couple transferred ownership of the property to themselves, this time in their capacity as trustees of the Maxori Trust. This document was also drafted by the Miami law firm headed by attorney Jorge Salcedo.

Armando.info sent a questionnaire to José Chacín Bello on February 28th to obtain his version of events, but no response was received by the time of publication. Communications were also sent to Salcedo Attorneys at Law, which confirmed that the firm, along with other firms, provides legal services to López that are permitted under OFAC regulations. “This general license authorizes U.S. attorneys to provide legal services to sanctioned individuals primarily in the areas of compliance with sanctions programs and litigation defense.” Salcedo declined to provide further details about its activities with López, citing the Florida Bar's Rules of Professional Conduct, the organization that regulates the practice of law in that state, regarding the confidentiality obligations of these firms with their clients. 

Long-time bank friends

In the communication sent to Armando.info , Martínez indicated that he has been friends with Chacín Bello for over 25 years: “We have worked on several projects together throughout our professional lives, and he is someone I hold in high esteem.” Multiple records confirm this. Both appear as members of the brokerage firm Venemutuo, founded in 2005 as a securities brokerage company, and whose board of directors in 2008 included Chacín Bello, Martínez, Luis Guillermo Rodríguez Salazar, and Carlos Aníbal Romero Márquez.

Venemutuo was taken over on January 28, 2010, by the National Securities Commission, amidst the crackdown on brokerage firms led by then-Finance Minister Jorge Giordani that year and the so-called "mini-financial crisis" that extended to some smaller banks. As a result of this intervention, Romero spent a few days in jail.

Romero, a former executive of the intervened and subsequently defunct Banco Canarias, is listed as a director of Banplus, a banking institution founded in 2007. The relationship between Chacín Bello and Martínez also began at this bank. According to a court ruling, Martínez was the principal director of the financial institution in April 2007, and Chacín Bello was the alternate director. 

Romero's name also appeared in an Armando.info article associated with Mauro Libi, a businessman in the food sector, who was listed as an executive of Banplus and Intercontinental Bankshares LLC, the company that held the shares of Intercontinental Bank, a small community bank in South Florida in which Samark López was a shareholder between 2012 and 2013. 

As revealed by the Pandora Papers, Martínez and Chacín Bello reappear in 2016 documents related to Samark López's offshore companies, with the Argentine acting as the companies' liquidator and Chacín as an executive. More recently, they are linked again at the brokerage firm Statera, where several names from Venemutuo's board of directors appear.

As of the date of this publication, the website of the National Securities Superintendency (Sunaval) lists Ariel José Martínez as president of Statera and Luis Guillermo Salazar as vice president. However, in his response to Armando.info , Martínez clarified that this information is outdated, as he held that position between 2016 and December 2020. “My departure from Statera CB was due to the need to avoid any conflict of interest with shareholders and directors of Bancamiga,” he explained.

Chacín Bello is not listed on the institution's official board of directors, but according to records from the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security (IVSS), he has been on the payroll of that brokerage firm since January 2017. Chacín Bello himself indicates, on his LinkedIn profile, that he has served as Statera's fixed portfolio manager since March 2014.

Martínez was appointed CEO of Bancamiga on May 21, 2021, shortly after the bank's shareholders' meeting on January 18, 2021, decided to register Bancamiga with the National Securities Registry "as a valid alternative to conventional financing." On June 11, Sunaval authorized the issuance of 23.45 billion shares , representing the company's total capital.

Martínez is also listed as an executive of Statera Asset Management SL, a business consulting firm founded on December 20, 2016, in Madrid, three days before he declared to Amicorp Group that his income came from his work at a company owned by Samark López. José Esteban Chacín Bello and José Luis Queijeiro Taboada, who were already shareholders of Bancamiga at the time, appear as directors of the Spanish company. Martínez told this publication that he co-founded the company with Chacín Bello. “It was my venture with a group of professionals with recognized experience in the financial sector, when I decided to continue my professional activity in Madrid, Spain, in 2016,” he added.

Statera Asset Management SL, in turn, acts as the sole administrator of Statera Construcción y Real Estate SL, a company registered in Madrid in July 2017 and dedicated to the construction and real estate sector. Enrique Chacín Bello, the younger brother of José Esteban Chacín, is listed as an executive in this company. 

But in the case of Bancamiga, the former partners' time with the company didn't coincide. Chacín Bello ceased being a shareholder before the Argentine businessman arrived. However, the presence of both in key positions—still held in Martínez's case—after the difficulties Samark López faced in moving his questionable fortune as a result of US sanctions, reveals that two old acquaintances of the controversial businessman have been involved with the thriving financial institution. These individuals accompanied him in his dealings with companies that secured lucrative contracts with the Venezuelan state, companies that were later sanctioned by US authorities on money laundering charges.

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