Company \r\nCedel International Investment LTD - which was the owner of the Venezuelan banks \r\nCanarias, Banpro and Bolivar Banco - operates in the tax jurisdiction of the \r\nBritish Virgin Islands, as revealed by the information of the last worldwide \r\nfiltration known as the Panama Papers and published by the International \r\nConsortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The \r\nname of Cedel comes from the abbreviations of the last and first name of the \r\nVenezuelan banker Eligio Cede\u00f1o. The Chavismo<\/I> arrested him and accused of \r\na scam that led to a legal process that ended with him fleeing to the United \r\nStates of America in 2009 and, at the same time, gave rise to the already \r\ninfamous case of Judge Mar\u00eda Lourdes Afiuni.<\/p>\n\n\n
Eligio \r\nCede\u00f1o and his brother Santos Luis Cede\u00f1o are the main shareholders of the \r\ncompany in the British Virgin Islands, registered in 2003, through company \r\nAmanco Management (BVI) Ltd, who used the law firm Mossack Fonseca as an \r\nintermediary to create offshore companies. Cedel was also the name of the \r\nbrokerage firm that operated in the Venezuelan capital, owned by Cede\u00f1o, which \r\nwas intervened by the National Securities Superintendency (SNV) in January \r\n2011.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nan interview with Armando.info, Cede\u00f1o says that appearing in the Panama Papers \r\nhas been distorted and that if he had had bad intentions in creating the company \r\nhe would not have signed as a beneficiary. \"An entrepreneur, not a public \r\nofficial, does usually have companies to hold his or her assets. And he or she \r\nusually has such companies outside the jurisdiction where he is represented... \r\nIt will be possible to identify the one with good intentions and the one with \r\nbad intentions when the shareholder ends up being an employee of the firm and \r\nnot the real owner. And that is not my case,\" says the former \r\nbanker.<\/p>\n\n\n
Eligio \r\nCede\u00f1o has been one of the most controversial entrepreneurs in contemporary \r\nVenezuelan history. Native of Caracas, of humble origin, he began his career at \r\n16 years of age as an intern and at 30 he already owned his own brokerage firm. \r\nHe was also the president of a financial institution, but his luck changed in \r\nFebruary 2007, when he was charged for the Microstar case. The Venezuelan \r\njustice accused him of simulating the importation of computers and opened the \r\nabovementioned legal process.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In \r\nthe early 90\u2019s, Cede\u00f1o founded Cedel Casa de Bolsa, previously called \r\nCiti-Invest, which was questioned a decade later for having been benefited in a \r\nsale transaction of National Public Debt Bonds. In 2002, the Ministry of Finance \r\nof Venezuela authorized Cedel to sell bonds for about 190 billion bolivars, when \r\nits capital was only about 7 billion bolivars. The operation was considered \r\nflaw-ridden since the brokerage firm bought the bonds at 78% and then resold \r\nthem in the secondary market to Bandes, a state bank, at a value of \r\n91%.<\/p>\n\n