Judge Julio César Arias has decided to lift the impoundment of the Cenis securities.
Armando Juárez, special prosecutor who directed the Cenis investigation, said Judge Arias has reponded to the petition of the President of the Central Bank of Nicaragua, Antenor Rosales, who argued for the national interest.
The lifting of the impoundment occurs a week after central bank authorities and Banpro signed an agreement to lengthen the maturity time for the payment of the Cenis and to lower the interest rate.
Nicaragua's central bank is going to pay Banco de la Producción the US$157 million it owes over the Cenis scandal, in which millions of dollars of private debt were turned into government obligations.
The central bank will pay the debt off over 20 years at a relatively low interest rate in a deal that will lift the threat of a sequestering order imposed by a judge.
Armando Juárez, the prosecutor in Nicaragua's biggest-ever financial scandal, the Cenis affair, said he has completed his inquiries and will present his case next month.
In the Cenis affair, millions of dollars of private debt were converted into public debt, and several politicians are said to have made overnight fortunes.
Juárez said it was too early to name those whom he intends to charge in the case, but added: "I don't know if more than 20 people are going to be charged, but you can sure there will be more than two."
Several senior executives of the Nicaraguan Central Bank are resigning as a result of accusations of corruption by their predecessors.
As the government renegotiates its domestic debt, senior economic officials say the crisis has eroded confidence in one of the nation's few credible institutions.
Fitch maintains a Negative Rating Watch on the national ratings of the Nicaragua's Banco de la Producción, S.A., and its subsidiaries (BANPRO) and Banco de Crédito Centroamericano, S.A. (BANCENTRO) following the announcement that 395.3 million córdobas (20.6 million dollars), equal to the amount of capital and interest of the bank bonds (CENIS) that matured April 15, 2008, has been deposited in an account in the name of the Minister of Finance and Public Credit in the Central Bank of Nicaragua.
The transfer of these funds from the banks that held these bonds is subject to the revocation of the judicial order that currently keeps the payments of these oblicgations suspended.
Armando Juárez, who heads the criminal inquiry into a Nicaraguan banking fraud, said he will continue with the investigation despite claims by Central Bank governor Antenor Rosales that the matter has been resolved.
Meanwhile, Juárez said that bonds backing the Negotiable Certificates of Investment (Cenis) would remain frozen. The investigation is reaching its final stages, he added.
The directors of the Banco de la Producción (Banpro) delivered to Judge Julio César Arias yesterday and to Special Prosecutor Armando Juárez two Negotiable Investment Certificates (Cenis) worth 16 million dollars, and a zero-coupon bond worth more than seven million dollars. They were to receive these securities between April and October of this year.
Sources at Banpro said the first certificate, valued at eight million dollars, was to be cashed on April 15; the zero-coupon bond on July 15 and the other Cenis in October.