He pointed out that the two plaintiffs combined, Bancor and Franeker, collectively own fewer than 100 shares in the bank, out of approximately 100 million shares of Eastern National Bank stock. Both Bancor and Franeker are controlled by Venezuelan-American businessman Juan Santaella, who had originally owned the bank.
“Mr. Juan Santaella has been obsessed with only one thing: getting back control of Eastern National Bank,” Davidson said.
Davidson explained that this began during the Venezuelan financial crisis of 1994, when several banks failed and were taken over by the government. The Venezuelan equivalent of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. stepped in to protect the deposits of Bancor, which was a bank at the time, and to remove Santaella, according to Davidson.
Bancor’s parent company was Corpofin, which also owned Mercorp NV, which in turn owns the majority of shares in Eastern National Bank. Rodriguez was appointed by the Venezuelan government to oversee Corpofin and took control of Mercorp as well, according to Davidson.
