Bancafe Asset Recovery

$6.89 million will be disbursed to account holders of the bank closed in Guatemala in 2006 by the Monetary Board.

Friday, June 15, 2012

The status of the case up to June 12, 2012 according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) is as follows:

On June 12, 2012, the Custodian finished the calculations required to carry out a fifth distribution.

Preparation for the fifth distribution has taken longer than anticipated, partly because of delays in the process associated with the Custodian’s claim to recover assets that were indicated to have originated from BIB, and which were transferred to companies belonging to Grupo Financiero del País (the "Group"), and eventually deposited in the Fund for Savings Protection, known as FOPA by its Spanish initials.

The Custodian is currently participating as a plaintiff in a criminal proceeding being directed by the Public Ministry of Guatemala, against several former shareholders, directors, and executives of BIB. The Custodian and its legal counsel in Guatemala have presented substantial evidence on the transfer of funds from the bank to BIB Group companies, some regulated and some not, for an amount greater than $99 million, without obtaining any return.

The claim in FOPA is incidental in the criminal proceedings, and through this claim, the Custodian is seeking the return of approximately $23 million from FOPA.

It has set a hearing for the return of funds from FOPA for June 15, 2012 at 2:30 pm.

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