In recognition of those efforts, a judge in September slashed his original 10-year prison sentence by 65%, according to recently unsealed court filings — one of the largest reductions ever in Miami federal court. The judge also relaxed Krull’s probation conditions, allowing him to remove the ankle monitor that kept him confined to his home from 7:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. He is scheduled to start his 42-month prison sentence this summer.
Julius Baer, based in Zurich, declined to answer detailed questions about any oversight responsibility in Krull’s criminal activities, so this story reflects Krull’s own perspective. Many of the details, however, are backed up by court documents and U.S. officials who’ve spent years investigating corruption in Venezuela.To Krull’s rivals in Venezuela, it was his unique upbringing that gave him an edge.
“The joke among bankers was that the money was lying on the streets, you just had to pick it up,” he said. There was a riskier side, however. Bankers were routinely targeted for kidnapping or extorted by government officials. Krull says he was once confronted by an angry client who placed a gun on a table to demand the return of millions of dollars he had lost through another investment adviser. After that, Krull hired an armed bodyguard.
Two years later, Krull’s client, who is identified in court documents as “Conspirator 7,” asked him to move $200 million in proceeds from the fake loan into a foreign bank account for two friends, according to investigators. “That was the moment when I realized I was over my head,” said Krull, who squirmed his way out of lunch with the men and headed to the airport, his heart racing. “I didn’t want to confront them, or tell them I didn’t agree with their parents’ politics. ... But when I was on the elevator going down, I said to myself, ‘Why me? Why at this moment?’”
“There was such an appetite to make money and to grow that many transactions didn’t get the proper review,” he says. “The only purpose was to keep generating income for the bank and not take any real and concrete action to avoid money laundering or any other suspicious criminal activity,” Krull alleges in the complaint.
However, the bank pointed out in a statement that the criminal activity to which Krull pleaded guilty occurred outside of his work duties. The bank said it has cooperated with Swiss authorities, closed its offices in Panama and Venezuela and has tried to claw back the bonuses of employees in its Latin American group whose actions triggered the regulatory probe.