Arrest Ordered for 83 Venezuelans in Bank Failure

Eighty-three Venezuelan businessmen, including a member of one of the world’s richest families, have been ordered arrested on suspicion of theft and swindling in the collapse of the nation’s second-largest bank.

The order by a Penal Court judge late Wednesday suggested criminal wrongdoing was in part behind the closure of Banco Latino and not just managerial ineptitude and poor federal regulation, as authorities had initially suspected.

Banco Latino closed its doors in January after authorities removed it from the national check-clearing system for failing to meet commitments.

A government-appointed panel has been overseeing the bank and studying ways to pump money into it so it can be reopened.

Among those ordered arrested was Ricardo Cisneros, a Banco Latino director and minority shareholder, whose billionaire family has vast holdings in banking, the news media, mining and food industries.