Matthias Krull, a former banker for Switzerland’s Julius Baer in Venezuela, poses for a portrait at his home in Miami on March 18, 2021. For two decades, Krull played a singular role in Venezuela as the go-to private banker for government insiders, before pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in Miami federal court in 2018.
By all accounts, Krull’s assistance mapping the shell companies and straw men strung across secretive jurisdictions like Antigua, Malta and Hong Kong where Venezuelans have hidden their ill-gotten wealth has proven decisive. Since In a series of interviews with The Associated Press over the past 10 months, Krull recounted his remarkable journey from the German-born son of a Lutheran pastor to banker of choice to Venezuela’s ruling elite.
His early years at Julius Baer were something of a bonanza-fueled blur for the then single, 30-something expat. Chávez was at the peak of his power, oil prices surged to a record and rich Venezuelans were scrambling to stash their money abroad before it was seized by the government or vanished by hyperinflation.
With a salary, bonus and benefits that sometimes topped $1.5 million a year, Krull says, he was dubbed internally as Julius Baer’s “onboarding star.” He owned two trendy restaurants in Caracas, a condo in Miami and pricey artwork by Venezuela’s modernist maestros. The dirty deal started in 2014, when one of his clients together with others made a loan to Venezuela’s state-owned oil monopoly, PDVSA, in bolivars. Krull had no part in the deal. The oil company repaid the loan two months later in dollars at an official, windfall exchange rate. That allowed the conspirators to make off with 510 million euros, or almost 15 times what they had originally lent, according to theagainst Krull.
At a January 2017 meeting in Gorrín’s office, Krull was introduced to the true beneficiaries of the $200 million take. Opening the door to an adjoining conference room, he came face to face withand baseball caps who were introduced as “Los Chamos” — Venezuelan slang for “the kids.” They were the rarely seen sons of Maduro’s wife, “First Combatant” Cilia Flores.
While the bulk of the money flowing into Julius Baer’s vaults from Venezuela was the byproduct of the country’s own instability — hapless leadership, worthless currency and triple-digit inflation — Krull says he believes a good chunk represented the proceeds of corruption to which many banks turned a blind eye.
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edufeiok esto es el futuro de Argentina
He CAN'T have just serviced Venezuelans.
Does he have a will?
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