Nodus's former chief executive forfeits $16.9 million of a $24.9 million fraud plea

Niembro admitted to a conspiracy to obtain at least $24.9 million from Nodus Bank. The forfeiture order covers $16.9 million of it, described in the sentencing as the proceeds he received from that conspiracy ^[3][2]. That is about 68 cents of every dollar in the plea figure, and roughly $8 million sits between the two numbers ^[2][1].

The conduct ran from August 2017 through at least October 2023, about 74 months. So the conspiracy took out something near $337,000 a month. Meanwhile, according to the government's sentencing memo, other board members, executives and the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions of Puerto Rico were kept unaware ^[3][5][14]. Nodus International Bank was founded in 2009 and primarily catered to Venezuelan customers ^[12]. The memo says Niembro used the money to "fund his lavish lifestyle" and to invest in companies including a Venezuelan supermarket chain ^[13].

The sanctions leg is the smaller money. Between 2021 and 2023 Niembro conspired to transact with a person designated by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ^[15]. The two of them had Nodus Bank foreclose on the man's Southampton, New York home, for which they obtained OFAC authorization. Then they reached a private agreement to sell the property back to him for $4 million through a front company. The Justice Department says OFAC never licensed that sale ^[16][17].

"The defendant abused his position with Nodus Bank to commit fraud for his own enrichment and to willfully evade sanctions on a designated individual," A. Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's criminal division, said in a press release ^[6]. Niembro's lawyers had asked for 48 to 60 months ^[7]. "Mr. Niembro's offenses were serious, and he accepted responsibility for them promptly and without reservation. On this record, a sentence of 48 months is sufficient," they argued in their sentencing memo ^[8].

His lawyers also wrote that the presentence report recommended he be surrendered to Immigration and Customs Enforcement "for removal proceedings" at the end of his prison term. They wrote that his lawful status in the United States ended on March 16, 2025, and that he has surrendered his Venezuelan and Spanish passports ^[10][9]. The government's sentencing memo does not mention ICE ^[11]. He is 64, so a full term served from sentencing would put him at about 73 on release ^[5][8].

In my view prosecutors will keep pairing these counts. The self-enrichment is what produced a forfeiture figure at all, and the recovery here is measured by fraud proceeds ^[2][16]. The counter-thesis is that Duva's gatekeeper language is the operative part, and that the next case needs only access to the payment system, no proceeds. An IEEPA charge against a bank officer with nothing to forfeit would settle which reading is right. Attorneys for Niembro did not immediately respond to American Banker's request for comment ^[20].