Colombia fines Banco Agrario execs over Navalena loan

Colombia’s attorney general fined 11 former and current members of the board of state-owned Banco Agrario over their role in the approval of a 120bn-peso (US$36.7mn) loan granted to concessionaire Navelena, linked to Brazilian firm Odebrecht.

Among the irregularities found by the regulator, it was ruled that the loan deal was approved despite the reputational risk related to the Odebrecht bribery scandal, as the loan was made after the firm’s former CEO Marcelo Odebrecht was arrested in 2015 on corruption charges.

Aside from this, the attorney general argues that the guarantees presented by Navelena “were irrelevant, were not legally and technically effectiven, nor did they have the liquidity to back up the loan,” the regulator said in a release.

Navelena was awarded a 2.5tn-peso PPP contract in 2014 to dredge a section of the Magdalena river, but the contract was canceled in 2017 after the concessionaire failed to reach its required financial closure due to Odebrecht’s lack of access to financing following the bribery scandal.

The penalties applied to the individuals varied, but the fines imposed totaled 680mn pesos.

The highest individual fine was given to Banco Agrario’s former commercial banking VP Mónica Santamaría, who was ordered to pay 250mn pesos. All of the fines can be appealed.