Mexican Denies Loan Scam at Seized Bank : Finance: Carlos Cabal Peniche says he’ll fight to keep his two firms and clear his name.

A fugitive Mexican businessman accused of running an insider loan network at the Cremi-Union financial group denied the charges Thursday and vowed to remain at the helm of the bank and Florida-based Del Monte Fresh Produce Co.

“I don’t intend to relinquish control of either of these companies, as has been maliciously reported,” Carlos Cabal Peniche said in an open letter to the Mexican media, his first public response to the charges against him.

He vigorously denied running a $700-million insider loan network at Cremi-Union and said he will fight to clear his name, from an unknown location outside Mexico.

In September, Mexican authorities took over management of the bank in the first such intervention in two decades.

They also sought the arrest of Cabal Peniche on charges that he falsified bank accounts to set up an illicit loan network that funneled the funds back to him.

In his letter, Cabal Peniche said he had been unjustly targeted by Mexican Finance Minister Pedro Aspe for reasons he did not explain.

He said he was also the victim of powerful interest groups that have taken advantage of the scandal to falsely link him to drug trafficking and money laundering.

Cabal Peniche said he had also stirred up resentment among U.S. competitors to Del Monte Fresh, which he bought in 1992 for $500 million.

“I’ve been informed that these same powerful interests, with nit-picking (tactics) and illegal measures, are trying to take this company away from me,” he said. “I will do everything possible with the support of the law that this doesn’t happen with impunity.”

A bid Cabal Peniche more recently made for San Francisco-based Del Monte Foods for $277 million lapsed Sept. 21 when he missed a merger deadline.