As the dust settles on the fraudulent lawsuit against the Banco Venezolano de Crédito, filed by representatives of the Venezuelan regime (Derwick Associates), it’s worth highlighting some of the key players involved in this malicious farce.
A special mention goes to FTI Consulting. This publicly traded company engages in various activities, including public relations management. This “public relations” firm instructed one of its employees, María José Tobar, to call me to find out where I was working, presumably to ensure I could be reached. After I pointed out FTI’s foolish attempt, María José Tobar deleted her LinkedIn profile. Yet, FTI Consulting has been offering similar “public relations” and consulting services to some of the worst thugs that emerged in Chávez’s Venezuela: Rafael Sarria, Ricardo Fernández Barrueco, Moris Beracha, Alejandro Andrade, David Osio, and the two fools running Derwick Associates, Alejandro Betancourt López and Pedro Trebbau López. The common thread among these names seems to be Frank Holder from FTI.
Holder “began his career in the U.S. Air Force as a political-military analyst at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina and as a special agent in the Office of Special Investigations at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.” He started in Argentina, where he established a risk assessment firm called Buenos Aires Sistemas Inteligentes with none other than Luis Moreno Ocampo, who accused Holder of stealing information from his office. Holder later created Holder Associates and sold it to Kroll, becoming Kroll’s man in Argentina. In 2000, Holder was convicted of false claims and fraud. He was also accused of extortion by former governor of Entre Ríos province, Jorge Busti. In 2001, Holder prepared an “intelligence report” on Argentine congressmen Gustavo Gutiérrez and Carlos Balter, which Judge Raúl Sánchez found baseless, commissioned and paid for by banker Raúl Moneta with the sole aim of disparaging the two congressmen. Holder also founded Holder International, another intelligence firm that FTI Consulting acquired for $9 million in 2007.
Holder’s name also surfaced in Brazil concerning a scandal involving Daniel Dantas over a report of secret accounts that Lula da Silva, José Dirceu, and other leaders of the Partido dos Trabalhadores allegedly held abroad (Dantas was trying to use the report to blackmail Lula and others). Holder was the author of the report, initially claiming he obtained the information during Kroll’s investigation of Italy’s Parmalat bankruptcy. Brazilian magazine Veja discovered through Milan’s authorities that Holder’s version was false. Confronted by Veja, Holder later admitted that hackers working for corrupt former Interior Minister of Argentina, José Luis Manzano, “obtained the information,” which Manzano delivered to him as “a personal favor.” As a result of his ties with disgraced Brazilian banker Dantas, for which he received $838,000, Holder was accused of defamation (simply fabricating “evidence,” just like in Argentina).
In addition to being a hired writer and a fabulist, Frank Holder, FTI Consulting’s director for Latin America, is purported to be an “expert” on “risk management… money laundering… forensic and litigation practice” and to understand “fraud and public corruption investigations…” Holder is being sued in Florida ($6 million due to his disappearance) by Matias Garfunkel, another ‘businessman’ involved in yet another massive corruption scheme in Argentina. In an attempt to acquire a majority stake in Telecom Argentina, Garfunkel tried to use two letters [see here and here] from two Venezuelan banks owned by [guess who?] Ricardo Fernández Barrueco, another Holder and FTI Consulting client. Did Fernández Barrueco knowingly participate in this, or is it just another example of Holder’s tendency towards recklessness?
But it gets even better; Holder was also hired by Hugo Carvajal, a kingpin designated by OFAC, under U.S. Treasury scrutiny for supporting FARC, the Colombian narco-terrorist cartel. As if that wasn’t enough, ex-CIA agent Holder also acted as an attorney for Rafael Sarria in at least two Florida-based companies [link to SAI Advisors Inc. and link to Noor Plantation Investments] used for money laundering through real estate acquisitions. Therefore, Holder, and by extension, FTI Consulting, have been involved, at minimum, in money laundering, extortion, and aiding and abetting wanted criminals. Holder began as a U.S. government employee: is he a double agent or simply capitalizing on the needs of criminals in Latin America? While FTI Consulting and Holder audaciously preach about FCPA compliance, when will federal authorities start questioning their activities in Latin America?