Venezuela nabs banker in Dominican Republic US$31M fraud case

Santo Domingo.- José Luis Santoro, CEO of the collapsed Peraviabank, was arrested by Interpol in Venezuela Tuesday, on an international arrestwarrant.

The information was provided by Amadeo Peralta, attorneyfor several plaintiffs and victims of the scam of more than RD$1.4 billion (US$31.1million) allegedly committed by the bank’s executives.

Peralta said Santoro was arrested during a raid in the cityof Maracaibo, whose authorities there notified the Dominican Republic.

The Office of the National District Attorney accuses the Venezuelanof having connection with drug trafficking and money laundering.

, in addition to the international arrest warrant, theauthorities requested the extradition of Santoro and his wife, Cristina Martidonnade Santoro; his daughter Maria Cristina Santoro Martidonna, Gabriel JimenezAray, Daniel Alejandro Morales Santoro, Maximo Bertilomo, Luis Manuel MeloPeña, Evelyn Serret Santana, Miriam Serret, Luis Valerio Herrera, Jose CarlosBergantiños and Alejandro Lorenzo Labiosa Lopez.

Santoro and JimenezAray, Peravia’s top owners and operational executives, are allegedly linked to dozensof crimes.