Board Chairman and Co-Owner of Puerto Rican Bank Sentenced in Multimillion-Dollar Wire Fraud Conspiracy

MIAMI - The former board chairman and co-owner of Nodus International Bank (Nodus Bank), a Puerto Rican International Banking Entity, was sentenced today to 62 months in prison. Juan Francisco Ramirez, 60, of Miami, led a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $23.6 million from Nodus Bank. Ramirez was ordered to forfeit over $13.6 million, which represents the value of the proceeds he derived from the wire fraud conspiracy.

"This defendant abused the trust of his bank's depositors, and when the bank went under, innocent people lost their savings," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. "The Criminal Division won't stand for it. We will use every resource at our disposal to protect this country's financial system and the decent, hardworking people who rely on it."

"Ramirez was entrusted to lead a bank. Instead, he looted it. He secretly steered millions of dollars in bank funds to benefit himself and his associates, causing nearly $24 million in losses and contributing to the bank's collapse," said U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida. "Today, he was sentenced to 62 months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit more than $13 million. This sentence sends a clear message: those who abuse positions of trust to enrich themselves will be held accountable."

"Financial frauds can be complicated, but the law is simple: do your business honestly and protect your depositors, or you will be brought to justice," said Acting Special Agent in Charge Charles Miller of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Florida Field Office. "IRS Special Agents, alongside our partners, will keep bringing transparency to complex financial crimes and protecting confidence in our banking system."

In September 2025, Ramirez pleaded guilty to an information charging one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to court documents, Ramirez conspired with others to siphon money from Nodus Bank. Ramirez and a co-conspirator concealed from other Nodus Bank board members and executives, and the bank's regulator - the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of Puerto Rico (OCIF) - that certain investments or loans were for the benefit of Ramirez and a co-conspirator, in violation of Puerto Rican law and Nodus Bank policy regarding insider transactions.

From 2017 to 2023, Ramirez conspired with others to invest more than $11 million of Nodus Bank's funds in a Miami-based lender so that it could loan those funds to Ramirez and a co-conspirator for their own benefit. Ramirez and his co-conspirators knew that these transactions were illegal and took steps to conceal their prohibited nature by having the bank make sham investments in the lending entity.

Between January 2018 and September 2021, Ramirez and a co-conspirator fraudulently induced Nodus Bank's board and comptroller to agree to, or facilitate, the purchase of at least 47 promissory notes totaling approximately $25.3 million from Miami-based finance company that Ramirez and the co-conspirator jointly owned. These promissory notes purported to fund loans to legitimate individuals or businesses, but in fact Ramirez and the co-conspirator used the loan proceeds for their own benefit, including to make personal investments in third-party companies, pay personal mortgages, or cover personal credit card expenses.

In early March 2023, OCIF notified Nodus Bank of its intention to place the Bank into liquidation, and later that month Nodus Bank agreed to enter into a voluntary liquidation. On April 28, 2023, knowing that the liquidation process would commence imminently and without authorization from OCIF, Ramirez and a co-conspirator caused Nodus Bank to purchase from their Miami-based finance company a loan portfolio totaling approximately $26 million. Most of these loans were delinquent, nonperforming, and otherwise uncollateralized. Ramirez and a co-conspirator caused Nodus Bank to accept the loan portfolio as payment of their Miami-based finance company's debt arising from the 47 promissory notes that Nodus Bank had purchased during 2018 to 2021. This resulted in a direct benefit to the finance company (and Ramirez and his co-conspirator) by relieving the finance company of its debt to the bank.

Ramirez's actions caused Nodus Bank to lose at least $23,613,371.

IRS-CI investigated the case with support from OCIF and Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Felipe Plechac-Diaz for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Javier Urbina and Samir Paul of the Criminal Division's Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section (MNF) prosecuted the case.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Miami comprises agents and officers from IRS Criminal Investigation with the prosecution being led by Bank Integrity Unit of MNF and by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.

MNF's mission is to take the profit out of crime, eliminate drug cartels, and protect the U.S. financial system. MNF pursues criminal prosecutions and criminal and civil asset recovery actions involving: financial facilitators who launder profits for criminals; financial institutions and their officers and employees whose actions threaten the U.S. financial system and financial institutions; international money launderers who support transnational organized crime; and the top command and control of international drug trafficking organizations.

MNF's Bank Integrity Unit investigates and prosecutes banks and other financial institutions, including their officers, managers and employees whose actions threaten the integrity of the individual institution or the wider financial system.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.govLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link. or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.govLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link., under case numbers 25-cr-20384.

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