U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated Thursday it deported a Mexican banker accused of laundering tens of millions of {dollars} in San Antonio that was stolen from depositors.
Rafael Olvera Amezcua had for years fought in opposition to returning to Mexico, the place ICE says he faces fraud fees and the place he says he faces persecution. In response to ICE, he got here to the U.S. in 2014 on a piece visa. His time in San Antonio was dogged by scandals involving the collapse of his financial savings and mortgage in Mexico, a large actual property empire and COVID-19 aid funds.
Olvera Amezcua, 64, was turned over to Mexican authorities Wednesday at one of many worldwide bridges in Laredo, ICE stated in a information launch. He’d been in detention since Might 2019. His immigration lawyer, San Antonio lawyer Javier Maldonado, stated Thursday that Olvera Amezcua’s prison fees are being pushed by “corrupt of us in Mexico.”
Maldonado, together with the Mexican American Authorized Protection and Academic Fund, had sued the Division of Homeland Safety on Olvera Amezcua’s behalf demanding his launch from ICE detention. Olvera Amezcua was at excessive threat of contracting COVID-19 and was not a flight threat, in line with the lawsuit. On the similar time, in line with court docket information, Olvera Amezcua was requesting asylum.
Rafael Olvera-Amezcua
“They actually handled him in another way and unnecessarily and unjustifiably extended his detention,” Maldonado stated. “We’re disillusioned. There was no motive for them to detain him that lengthy. He was identified to DHS for a few years, so any claims that he would possibly flee are simply bogus.”
A 2015 investigation by the Express-News discovered that corporations linked to Olvera Amezcua owned 100 items of actual property right here and within the Miami space. Mexican banking officers on the time stated he’d stolen a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} from depositors in his now-defunct financial savings and mortgage Ficrea, transferring tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to the U.S.
Olvera Amezcua has persistently denied the allegations, however in 2019 he agreed to turn over 80 pieces of real estate, 19 of them in Bexar County, together with high-end cars to settle a lawsuit filed by a trustee tasked with liquidating Ficrea’s property.
In 2020, Leadman Commerce Inc., a San Antonio firm on the heart of the scandal that recognized Olvera Amezcua as its director, received a COVID-19 relief loan of between $150,000 and $300,000.
Jorge Eduardo Jiménez, a Ficrea depositor who misplaced 800,000 pesos, about $38,700 at present, stated he has little confidence the identical authorities who failed to identify Ficrea’s monetary issues earlier than it collapsed will be capable to successfully prosecute him.
No matter restitution depositors obtain will come from the sale of the 80 properties Olvera Amezcua turned over in 2019, Jiménez stated. To date, depositors have obtained 20 p.c of what they misplaced, he stated.
“I believe Olvera ought to face a prison trial in Mexico, however every thing signifies he received’t, as a result of the authorities don’t see this as an assault in opposition to society,” Jiménez stated. “I believe the prosecution will let him go, and he, already exonerated, will attempt to return to the U.S. legally.”
