- Key insight: The former CEO of Nodus International Bank in Puerto Rico was sentenced to nine years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit more than $16.9 million.
- What's at stake: The sentencing of Tomás Niembro Concha is the latest development in a wild saga involving the 2023 demise of Nodus International Bank.
- Forward look: Niembro's restitution hearing has been scheduled for December.
The ex-CEO of a failed Puerto Rico bank has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison for his role in leading a multiyear wire-fraud conspiracy and trying to evade U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.
Tomás Niembro Concha, the top executive at Nodus International Bank until its 2023 collapse, was sentenced Monday to 112 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The 64-year-old Spanish and Venezuelan national was also ordered to forfeit more than $16.9 million, representing the proceeds he received from the wire-fraud conspiracy.
Niembro's sentencing is the latest development in a wild saga involving the demise of Nodus International Bank and its banking subsidiary, Nodus Bank. In March, Niembro pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring to fraudulently obtain at least $24.9 million from Nodus Bank and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The case was prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
"The defendant abused his position with Nodus Bank to commit fraud for his own enrichment and to willfully evade sanctions on a designated individual," A. Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general of the U.S. Justice Department's criminal division, said in a press release. "When individuals who are supposed to serve as gatekeepers to our financial system choose to abuse that trust and instead use their access to facilitate crimes, the criminal division will hold them accountable."
Attorneys for Niembro did not immediately respond to American Banker's request for comment. They had sought a sentence of 48-60 months, according to court documents.
"Mr. Niembro's offenses were serious, and he accepted responsibility for them promptly and without reservation. On this record, a sentence of 48 months is sufficient," his attorneys argued in their sentencing memo.
His attorneys also stated that Niembro's lawful status in the United States ended on March 16, 2025, and that he has surrendered his Venezuelan and Spanish passports. The government's presentence report, prepared by probation officials, recommended that Niembro be surrendered to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement "for removal proceedings" at the end of his prison term, his lawyers wrote.
The government's sentencing memo does not mention turning Niembro over to ICE.
Nodus International Bank was founded in 2009 and primarily catered to Venezuelan customers, according to
According to the U.S. government's sentencing memo, from August 2017 through at least October 2023, Niembro and his co-conspirators illegally obtained millions of dollars from Nodus Bank. Niembro used the proceeds to "fund his lavish lifestyle" and invest in companies, such as a Venezuelan supermarket chain, according to the memo.
Niembro and others were accused of concealing their actions from other Nodus Bank board members, executives and the bank's regulator, the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of Puerto Rico. In addition, between 2021 and 2023, Niembro conspired with others to engage in prohibited financial transactions with someone who was designated by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control as a "specially designated national."
Niembro and that individual came up with a plan to "cause Nodus Bank to foreclose on the [individual's] home in Southampton, New York — for which they obtained OFAC authorization — but separately reached a 'private' agreement to induce Nodus Bank to sell the property back to the individual for $4 million through a front company," according to the Justice Department.
The latter transaction was prohibited by U.S. sanctions and not otherwise licensed by OFAC.
A multiyear scheme
Niembro is one of four individuals executives who faced charges in connection with the fraud schemes. Emilio Santandreu, who owned a Miami-based microfinance business in which Niembro and others invested $11 million over several years and used those funds for themselves, was sentenced to 34 months in prison, later reduced to 22 months, according to court documents.
Jose Gregorio Suarez, a former director at Nodus International, was the business development and general manager at Nodus Finance, a Miami-based company that Niembro and Ramirez jointly owned. Suarez, who pleaded guilty, has yet to be sentenced.
Juan Francisco Ramirez, the former board chair at Nodus International, pleaded guilty last year to fraudulently diverting more than $13.6 million from Nodus Bank, the Justice Department said. Ramirez has also yet to be sentenced.
In early 2023, the Puerto Rico regulator informed Niembro and Ramirez that Nodus Bank had to be liquidated due to its financial condition. According to the government's sentencing memo, the pair did not return previously fraudulently obtained funds. In fact, they renewed two fraudulent investment certificates with the Miami-based microfinance business totaling nearly $4.6 million, the government said.
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Additionally, as the liquidation process neared, Niembro and his co-conspirators "caused Nodus Bank to buy a $26 million portfolio of mostly fraudulent or otherwise delinquent loans from Nodus Finance," a move that freed Nodus Finance of a $25.2 million debt to Nodus Bank and made it more difficult for Nodus Bank's receiver to recover the fraudulent funds, the memo said.
In October 2023, Puerto Rico's banking regulator appointed a receiver and revoked Nodus Bank's license, the memo said. The situation harmed customers and triggered numerous lawsuits, according to the Miami Herald article. The bank's deposits were not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. because Nodus was an international bank in Puerto Rico.
A restitution hearing in Niembro's case is scheduled for Dec. 17.
