Former Nodus Bank CEO Sentenced to Nine Years for Fraud That Helped Sink Puerto Rican International Bank

Tomás Niembro Concha, the former chief executive of Nodus International Bank in Puerto Rico, was sentenced Monday to 112 months (nine years) in federal prison for leading a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that prosecutors say contributed directly to the bank’s collapse and involved efforts to evade U.S. sanctions tied to Venezuela.

The Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF), Puerto Rico’s banking regulator, provided the sentencing information.

Niembro, 64, a Spanish-Venezuelan national, was also ordered to forfeit more than $16.9 million and will serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. He pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a federal law that prohibits transactions with entities and individuals designated by the U.S. Treasury as threats to national security.

Millions Through Fake Investments

According to federal court filings, Niembro and Nodus Bank board chairman Juan Ramirez secretly funneled at least $24.9 million out of the institution between 2017 and 2023 through sham investments, self-dealing loans, and the sale of promissory notes that benefited companies they controlled.

Prosecutors said the pair hid the transactions from other executives and from Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions, violating local banking laws and undermining the bank’s financial stability.

The initiative reflects a federal priority to prevent criminal networks from using financial institutions to move illicit proceeds or evade sanctions.

The fraud operated through two primary schemes. One involved directing $11 million of Nodus Bank funds into what are known as “certificates of investment” issued by a Miami-based lender. These certificates appeared to be legitimate investments in the bank’s accounting records, but in reality, the lender then turned around and issued personal loans to Niembro and Ramirez using those same funds. In essence, the bank was lending money to its own executives under a disguised structure.

The second scheme was even more direct. Between January 2018 and September 2021, the pair induced the bank to purchase 47 promissory notes totaling roughly $25.3 million from Nodus Finance, a Miami-based entity that Niembro and Ramirez jointly owned. A promissory note is a written agreement to pay a sum of money at a future date, typically with interest.

By having Nodus Bank buy these notes from their private company, Niembro and Ramirez were essentially funneling the bank’s capital directly into their own pockets while maintaining the appearance of legitimate business transactions.

Concealment and Regulatory Evasion

To keep their scheme hidden, Niembro and Ramirez actively concealed the transactions from other board members, executives, and from OCIF. The bank’s own regulatory body was unaware that the company’s funds were being diverted for personal benefit through these schemes.

By early 2023, the weight of these fraudulent transactions became impossible to hide, and OCIF notified Nodus Bank that it would be placed into liquidation, a formal process where the bank’s assets are sold off and its operations shut down to protect depositors.

Facing the bank’s imminent collapse, Niembro and Ramirez executed one final maneuver: they pushed the bank to accept a loan portfolio from Nodus Finance to offset the massive debt created by the $25.3 million in promissory notes the bank had purchased. This attempt to cover their tracks came too late to prevent the collapse.

Sanctions Evasion

The case extended beyond ordinary fraud into national security concerns. Between 2021 and 2023, Niembro conspired with others to carry out prohibited financial transactions involving an individual designated by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for supporting Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). OFAC maintains a list of Specially Designated Nationals, or SDNs, who are subject to strict economic sanctions.

Although Nodus Bank obtained legal authorization from OFAC to foreclose on the sanctioned individual’s Southampton, New York home to satisfy a $2.5 million loan, Niembro separately arranged a private agreement to sell the property back to the sanctioned individual for $4 million through a front company. This transaction was explicitly barred under U.S. sanctions law and represented an attempt to circumvent federal restrictions on dealings with Venezuela-linked entities.

National Security Concerns

Federal officials said the case underscores the risks posed when financial-sector leaders abuse their positions.

“The defendant abused his position with Nodus Bank to commit fraud for his own enrichment and to willfully evade sanctions on a designated individual,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said in a statement, adding that safeguarding the integrity of the financial system is a national-security priority.

The investigation was led by IRS Criminal Investigation, with support from OCIF and the Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture. Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida handled the case.

The prosecution forms part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative created under Executive Order 14159, which targets transnational criminal organizations, financial facilitators, and sanctions-evasion networks.

The initiative reflects a federal priority to prevent criminal networks from using financial institutions to move illicit proceeds or evade sanctions.