Ex-Bank CEO Sentenced for Fraud and Sanctions Evasion

Tomás Niembro Concha, the former CEO of Nodus International Bank, has been sentenced to 112 months in prison for his involvement in a multimillion-dollar wire fraud conspiracy and a scheme to evade U. S. sanctions against Venezuela.

The sentencing was announced by the U. S. Department of Justice on September 21, 2026.

Niembro, a 64-year-old Spanish and Venezuelan national, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit over $16. 9 million.

According to the Justice Department, Niembro led a scheme to fraudulently obtain at least $24.9 million from Nodus Bank, a Puerto Rican international bank. He conspired with others to siphon money from the bank, ultimately leading to its failure in 2023. The fraudulent activities included concealing from other board members and the bank's regulator, the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of Puerto Rico (OCIF), that certain investments and loans were for the personal benefit of Niembro and Board Chairman Juan Ramirez.

Niembro and Ramirez orchestrated illegal transactions from 2017 to 2023, including investing $11 million in a Miami-based lender to benefit themselves. They also induced the bank's board and comptroller to purchase at least 47 promissory notes totaling approximately $25.3 million from Nodus Finance, a company they jointly owned, using the proceeds for personal gain.

In addition to the fraud, Niembro conspired to evade U. S. sanctions designed to protect national security.

Between 2021 and 2023, he conducted prohibited financial transactions with an individual designated as a Specially Designated National (SDN) by the U. S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

This individual was sanctioned for providing material support to Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S. A. (PDVSA).

To satisfy an outstanding loan of approximately $2. 5 million, Niembro and the SDN devised a scheme involving the foreclosure and resale of a property in Southampton, New York, through a front company, circumventing U. S.

sanctions. This transaction was strictly prohibited and not licensed by OFAC.

The case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation with support from OCIF and the Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture (TEOAF). The prosecution was handled by Trial Attorneys Javier Urbina and Samir Paul of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Felipe Plechac-Diaz for the Southern District of Florida.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, aimed at protecting the American people against complex financial crimes and sanctions-evasion schemes.