WHO IS WHO
Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image – Goethe
In the Filanbanco case there are victims and executioners. There were concrete interests belonging to a small group of people behind the decisions made by judges, Superintendents, managers of the Agency of Guaranteed Deposits (AGD), ministers and presidents. All are known. All are connected.
Over the years, since the great financial crisis at the end of the ‘90’s, we have seen how some of those primarily responsible for the loss of the savings of thousands of Ecuadoreans have tried to conceal their mistakes while looking to blame a scapegoat, the Isaias brothers. There is nothing better to avoid responsibilities than a media cause or a demagogical flag.
These are some of the protagonists and their connections.
Juan Falconi Puig
A dreadful character that is ever present in Ecuadorean life. Between 1988 and 1992, he was the Minister of State during the Borja administration. He returns to power in 1997 and is one of two of the intellectual authors of Decree 142, vehicle through which Ecuadorean depositors lost 50% of their savings. The other was Pedro Delgado Campana. Parallel to his political career, Falconi is linked to the banking scandals of Cofiec, Progreso and Pacifico. In spite of all this, he becomes Superintendent of Banks in April of 2000 although he will be removed from the post for reasons of corruption later that year by the National Congress. He was accused for his participation in the fusion of La Previsora – Filanbanco. However, he requested and was granted the same amnesty as Luis Villacis, who had been obeying orders from the Presidency of the AGD.
Carlos Bravo Macias
He was General Manager of the Agency of Guaranteed Deposits. In a meeting with President Rafael Correa, Juan Falconi Puig and other attendants, doubts are cleared up regarding the seizure and the name of the new general manager of the AGD, Carlos Bravo Macias was probed. On July 4, 2008, he became the new head of the AGD and between 2008 and 2009 he was the executor of the seizures. Five years prior to this, Carlos Bravo had been Juan Falconi Puig’s attorney and his fees had been paid for by the Superintendent of Banks and Insurance.
Pedro Delgado Campana
He is a cousin of the current President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa. He was the Credit Manager of the National Finance Corporation during the year of the financial disaster and the liquidity crisis. The intellectual author along with Juan Falconi Puig of Decree 142 that singlehandedly reduced the savings of Ecuadoreans by 50%. He becomes the National Intendent of Supervision of Financial Entities and signed, along with his sister in law, a report ripe of allegations which gave rise to this case. He returned to Rafael Correa’s side and became his advisor. However, he is more than that. From Miami he instructed members of the Banking Board how to proceed with the seizure of the Isaias property. Furthermore, after the creation of the ensemble AGD-NFC-NO MORE IMPUNITY, that placed the administration of all the seized property in the hands of one person, he is named its president. On March of 2010, in his position as advisor to the President of Ecuador, he attended the annual meeting of the Governors Assembly of the Inter-American Bank of Development. However, during his presentation he used the electronic address of his company Consulmax from which he works at in Miami.
Francisco Endara
He was a former employee of the AGD during Carlos Bravo’s administration when the property of the Isaias brothers was illegally confiscated. He is currently, the director of assets of the management unit of the Trust Fund No More Impunity which is in charge of all of the property of the former shareholders of Filanbanco.
Gloria Sabando
She has been the Superintendent of Banks and Insurance since 2007 when named by resolution of the Constituent Assembly. She carries the dark shadow of a political trial for blocking the information regarding the liquidation of banks. Despite the organism’s necessary independence, Sabando pertains to Correa’s inner circle but, even this has not prevented her from having various disputes with her boss especially on the sluggishness of the sale of the closed banks. She was the Manager of the AGD, appointed by Correa and had previously managed some of the closed banks.
Gustavo Noboa
He was President from 2000 till 2002 after the Mahuad presidency collapsed. He participated on the Board of Banco Popular in a compromising session concerning a resolution. Under his administration, Congress approved a new banking law motivated by some of those who had caused the financial crisis. Noboa acknowledges a document in December 2001 that is addressed to the President of the National Congress that the reformation of the General Law of Institutions of the Financial System threatens judicial security and is unconstitutional. Notwithstanding, he did not want to assume the political cost of a veto, thereby affirms the “existence of superior values to that of judicial order of the State”, and commissions God and Country to judge them. When the country did so, he cloaked himself with amnesty claiming to be persecuted politically.