YARRINGTON'S INDICTMENT REVEALS ROLE OF LOCAL BANKS, UNANAMED CONSPIRATORS IN ILLEGAL $$$ SCHEMES

By Juan Montoya
The 53-page indictment issued by a federal grand jury here May 22 but unsealed December 2, against former Matamoros mayor and Tamaulipas Governor Tomas Yarrington Rubalcava is making a lot of people nervous.
Not only is the involvement of several South Texas Bank detailed in the indictment, but so are a host of unnamed conspirators who – along with Yarrington and fellow indictee Fernando Alejandro Cano Martinez – operated a continuing criminal enterprise involving the laundering of money gained from drug running, theft of public funds form various sources in Tamaulipas, and the acquisition of millions in illegal loans from Texas banks.

In its indictment, federal prosecutors Charles Lewis, Julie Hampton and Jody Young are seeking the forfeiture of at least $98 million funneled from accounts in Mexico controlled by Yarrington of his numerous "prestanombres"  to banks in the United States.
At least three banks were the main players in the Yarrington-Cano scheme. They were, Falcon International Bamk, Laredo, Inter National Bank, McAllen, First National Bank, Edinburg, Lone Star National  Bank, Pharr, Wells Fargo, and Capital One Finance on the U.S. side.
The conspirators are alaso said to have used banks in Mexico such as HBSC, Scotia Bank, BBVA, Bancomer, Banamex, and Banregio. Millions of dollars were then tranasfered through Monex, a money transmitter, in Mexico..
The government alleges that even back in 1998 when Yarrington was still a candidate for governor, he was already receiving bribes from large drug organizations then operating in Tamaulipas, including the Gulf Cartel. The bribes were said to be collected by his late associate Jesus Vega Sanchez, his political manipulator, who reached an agreement with the various cartel leaders operating in Tamaulipas in exchange for guarantees by Yarrington that their illegal activities would be protected once he assumed the governorship.
The government alleges that the Beltran Leyva Cartel paid Yarrington a percentage of the value of their loads that came in unmolested through the Port of Veracruz.
Yarrington also got a cut from the profits made by Cano after his construction company Materiales y Construcciones Villa de Aguayo S.A. de C.V. was given lucrative public works construction projects by Yarrington's administration. Some of the payments consisted of ranches in Mexico which were placed under other "prestanombres" to hide Yarrington's ownership.
According to documents released earlier by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Mexican Procuradoria general de la Republica (PGR), Yarrington used the initial $2 million provided him by these groups to open bank accounts in U.S. banks and then leverage loans to purchase a condominium at the Bridgepoint Oceanfront Condominiums to pay the $450,000 price tag on Unit 1401. Maintenance payments were also paid from these accounts. The condominium was listed as being owned by Matamoros

resident Napoleon Rodriguez de la Garza, one of many "prestanombres" Yarrington used to conceal his ownership.
The federal government seized the condominium and auctioned it to forfeit the funds. It sold for $640,000.
Other properties Yarrington purchased with the dirty money include a $250,000 home in the exclusive Cimarron Estates in Mission where he was said to keep a mistress and which was also used by his brother.
The government indictment also alleges that Yarrington and Cano used a number of shell corporations funded by narco money to in turn leverage loans to launder money for their criminal enterprise. The transfers to the U.S., banks included some $60 million pesos stolen from the city of Laredo in 2004 by a "conspirator" and placed under Yarrington's control. Over time, the stolen funds were transferred in installments to a number of accounts in some of the banks named above.
Some of the corporations that were sued by the two men and their unnamed co-conspirators included Premier International Holdings, AGM Investmnents, Perquera Investments, SPI Ling, Marlin Townhouse Development, SPI Development, RGC Development, Cantera Parway Development, Culebra 179, and Culebra 104 among others.
*In 2004, First National Bank loaned a Yarrington conspirator a $200,000 loan to build a home in HIdalgo County.
*On 2005, Inter National Bank issued a loan to Premier International for $2,570,000 for the purchase of a 2005 model Pilatus plane.
*In  April 2005, First National Bank issued a $2,850,000 loan to Pesquera Investments. The borrowers later defaulted with $2,083,133 outstanding which were later written off as a bad debt by the bank.
*In May 2005, Inter National Bank made a $619,000 to SPI Ling and Marlin Townhouse Project for the development of real estate on South Padre Island through a Yarrington "conspirator.".
*In January 2007, Lone Star Bank made a $3,050,000 loan to SPI LIng for real estate development on South Padre Island.
*In February 2006, First National Bank made a $6,650,000 loan to Cantera-Parway Development to purchase 46 acres of land in Bexar County (San Antonio).
*In July 2006, Falcon International Bank loaned Culebra 179 Acre Residentail Development $3,626,000 to purchase real estate in Bexar County.
*On August 2006, through a "conspirator," Yarrington caused a $2,874,000 loan to be made by Falcon International Bank to Culebra SA 104 Residentail Partnership.
*Then, in 2007, YArrington learned that Cano was involved in a divorce and that his assets might become compromised and sought to insulate his assets from a loss in the divorce action. Using Monex, the funds were transferred from January 2008 to July 2009 in six major transfers to Premier International totaling $545,886 through the Inter National Bank of McAllen.
*These were followed by another 13 transfers totaling $2,362,000 through Monex to Cantera Parkway Development through the First National Bank..
Cantera Development also received additional $transfers exceeding $1,500,000 from GMC S.A. de C.V. and Expide Technologia S.A. de C.V. through the First National Bank.
*On April 201, another account was established for Cantera at First National bank that was the recipient of $3,000,000 in money transfers.
*A "conspirator" established an account for SPI Ling at the Lone Star National Bank in Pharr which received $100,000 in May 2008.
*In the spring of 2008, First National Bank issued a loan for $150,000 to Cano acting as a "prestanombres" for Yarrington.
Who are all those unindicted "conspirators" who helped Yarrinton and Cano transfer the ill-gotten gains from theft and drug running to pliant banks in the United States? In January 2012, the PGR released a list of names they say were complicit in the scheme. The names were published in the newspaper El Norte and are listed below.
Related to Tomas Yarrington:
Marco Antonio Yarrington Rubalcava, brother
Maria Antonia Morales Loo, wife of Yarrington
Genaro Antonio Morales Loo, brother-inlaw
Alfonso Salazar Arazola, ex-director of Tourism and International Affairs
Alfredo Perez Salinas, ex-government representative
Daniel Sampayo Sanchez, ex-private secretary
Fernando Tomas Cayuela Villarreal, ex-state prosecutor
Genaro Alberto Quijano, ex-administrator of Social Communications
Jorge Max Castillo, former prosecutor
Manuel Montiel Govea, ex-director of Social Communications
Pedro Alfonso Garcia, editor of state media
Ramiro Garcia Cavazos, ex-collaborator
Ramon Duron Ruiz, ex-Prosecutor
*Sergio Ramon Arguelles Gutierrez, businessman
Fernando Alejandro Cano Martinez, businessman
*Sergio Arguelles is one of Martamoros' most prominent businessmen and is related by marriage to Roberto Montemayor, a businessman with extensive business and real estate holdings in Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley, including numerous properties in Rancho Viejo, South Padre Island and McAllen