Injured from Proinco claim for decision to close liquidation by the Superintendency of Banks

After five years since the forced liquidation of Proinco Sociedad Financiera, only 11 people out of 1,400 affected, that is, less than 1% have received their money back. The other 99% have not received their assets or the help of the Deposit Insurance Corporation (Cosede). Rather, a few days ago, the Superintendency of Banks and Insurance announced the termination of the liquidation process, with which those affected lose the possibility of recovering their money.

Therefore, the Committee of Victims that brings together 1,400 families, to whom at least $ 100 million should be owed, seeks in several ways to avoid this definitive closure. Gisella Corrales, president of the group, explained that the Transparency Commission of the National Assembly has just approved a motion, proposed by Assemblywoman Nathalie Viteri (PSC), in which the Superintendent of Banks, Ruth Arregui, is asked to reopen the settlement process and that a real list of those affected be sent, so that the Cosede can make the respective payments.

Corrales stated that the liquidation process was riddled with errors. Among them, he said that there is an overestimation of some debts and that the liquidator Ramiro Ramírez has not made a rigorous review of the accounting, Well, if this process were done, then it could be determined who the creditors are. He expressed that they have managed to detect, for example, a true credit for $ 18,000 that appears in the accounts of the liquidator as for $ 98,393, “that is, the value was inflated, it is not known for what purpose,” he added. There are 86 more cases of other irregularities, he said.

He assured that among the injured there are many elderly people who trusted the financial system. Many of them even made investments of the bonds that the Government gave them for the retirement incentive, advised by Casas de Valores. He assured that all the victims gave their money to the Proinco building and that later, with deception, they exchanged their certificates for others from related companies.

However, the posture of the Superintendent of Banks, Ruth Arregui, has been invariable: the law does not allow hundreds of creditors to pay through Cosede, simply because they do not have the certificates that prove said debts. Arregui made a historical tour of what happened with Proinco a few days ago, before the Transparency Commission.

On June 13, 2016, Proinco was declared in forced liquidation, after the Superintendency of Banks detected that there were illegal fund-raising operations through companies related to Proinco. For this case, the principal of Proinco, Santiago Ribadeneira, is serving a sentence of 13 years and four months. But he has also been sentenced to make financial reparation for $ 98.8 million.

Regarding the liquidation process, according to Arregui, initially there was an accounting balance payable of $ 221,704, on which $ 219,049 were paid. These amounts are far from the $ 100 million that hundreds of depositors say they gave to Proinco.

The superintendent also acknowledged that in May 2019 any natural or legal person who documented their credit was called for credit qualification. Thus, 446 credits were presented, but of these only 2 were qualified and paid.

Arregui explained that of the total of 446, some 262 did not have titles so they cannot be honored by the liquidated financial entity. Regarding another 42 credits, it has not been possible to identify that they come from Proinco. Another 120 credits were owned by the companies Marktrade, Encaisser, Minga, InmoProinco and others that would not be subject to obligation on the part of Proinco Sociedad Financiera. Making a general evaluation, it is known that between 2016 and 2019, 11 people have been paid less than 1% of the total.

The superintendent further stated that The five years (three of a term and two of an extension) that legally exist for the development of a liquidation process have already passed.

He also acknowledged that information was sent to him that claimed that there were some 262 people who had deposits in Proinco and that later, with deception, they came to have fraudulent documents from Maktrade, Encaisser, Minga, Inmoproinco. This is precisely what constitutes the cause of massive scam. And this is the amount that Ribadeneira is told to cover as a repair. However, Arregui also said, the injured should go to the Superintendency of Companies and seek to recover their money with the liquidators of the companies.

Faced with this position, Corrales assured that if the superintendent does not accept the requests made by those affected and the Assembly itself, then it will choose to promote a impeachment of the official. Another possible way is to go to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). She considered that If there had been the necessary controls by the Superintendencies of Banks and Companies, the issue would not have ended like this.

From the Assembly, Viteri exhorted the superintendent and the liquidator to favor these people who have had to spend five years from one place to another looking for their money to be delivered to them. In his opinion, within the Constitution and the law, there are provisions that allow the settlement periods to be extended when there have been delays attributable to the liquidator himself.

Meanwhile, from jail, Santiago Ribadeneira has given statements in previous months to the effect that what happened with Proinco was due to the Superintendency of Banks itself that forced him to the forced liquidation, despite the fact that they themselves had given the guarantee to carry out the operations with the other companies of the group. In October 2020, Ribadeneira asked President Lenín Moreno for clemency, and his proposal was that once they were released they could form a trust with Proinco’s assets to try to rescue the assets. Currently, the injured are vehemently opposed to the current government, in the midst of the pardon processes to oxygenate the prisons, handing him over to Ribadeneira.

Among the latest news from Ribadeneira, in September 2020, it is stated that he would have been poisoned, but that he recovered. (I)