New bombshell reporting shows that Eric Hovde’s bank flew $26 million in cash from Mexico to California as a part of a deal with Banco Azteca, a Mexican-based bank with a history of being utilized by drug cartels. This story follows previous reporting on Hovde’s shady finances and his refusal to divest from his bank if elected to the Senate—which has been accepting money from foreign governments for years.
“This shocking revelation further proves that Eric Hovde is only out for his own profit and cannot be trusted to represent Wisconsinites,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “He’s literally bankrolling his campaign with millions of dollars made as the only American banker willing to do business with a Mexican bank tied to drug cartels. It’s time for Hovde to come clean about his foreign dealings and pledge to fully divest from the bank. Failing to do so is disqualifying as it would lead to undue foreign influence and immeasurable conflicts of interest.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bice: Democrats question Eric Hovde over his bank’s $26M deal with a troubled Mexican bank
Dan Bice
09/19/24
Key sections:
- Banco Azteca, the 10th largest financial institution in Mexico, has had its share of problems in recent years.
- Accused in past news stories of having links to the Mexican drug cartel.
- Dropped as a financial partner by some U.S. banks because of “risk and compliance concerns.”
- And now caught up in a Texas bribery scheme with an American congressman.
- But Sunwest Bank, the Utah-based financial institution run by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, doesn’t mind doing business with it.
- In December, Banco Azteca sent $26.2 million in cash to Sunwest on four airplane flights as part of a massive currency conversion called “repatriation,” records show. Hovde, who is running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, is chairman and CEO of Sunwest.
- Now Democrats are questioning the deal, saying it gives voters a window into how Hovde runs his businesses by putting personal financial stakes above other issues.
- Arik Wolk, spokesman of the Democratic Party, said Sunwest’s transactions with Banco Azteca are “extraordinarily concerning,” especially given the alleged past ties between Azteca and the drug cartel. He added, however, that Democrats were not suggesting Hovde or Sunwest had done anything illegal.
- “Hovde is willing to do anything to enrich himself, even flying cash across the border for a bank suspected of working for criminal groups that are pouring deadly fentanyl into our state,” Wolk claimed.
- As recently as 2021, Banco Azteca had no correspondent banks in the U.S. with which it could transfer U.S. currency.
- Over the past decade, several news accounts, including two by Reuters, have drawn links between Banco Azteca and Mexican gangs, which are the leading suppliers of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other illicit narcotics to the U.S.
- In 2023, a Reuters reporter wrote that drug cartels are using remittances – money transfers favored by migrant workers – to send illicit earnings back to Mexico.
- The Reuters reporter said he witnessed five individuals on motorcycles collecting cash from people leaving branch offices of three banks, including Banco Azteca. Locals said these were couriers for the Sinaloa Cartel picking up drug money sent as remittances.
- In a 2014 story, Reuters quoted a prominent anti-kidnapping activist saying Mexican gangs involved in kidnapping migrants ask for the money to be sent to Banco Azteca. Also, the Yale Journal of International Affairs reported that Banco Azteca was one of four banks that the Mexican cartel was using to process extortion payments.
- A little more than a decade ago, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency investigated Banco Azteca’s ties with its then-correspondent bank in the U.S., Lone Star National Bank of Pharr, and turned up money-laundering concerns. Repeatedly cited and fined, Lone Star soon ended its relationship with Banco Azteca.
- Other financial institutions, including Fifth Third Cincinnati and CBW Bank, soon followed.
- According to a May story in the Wall Street Journal, Banco Azteca has struggled doing business with U.S. banks since regulators began enforcing rules cracking down on money laundering from drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. Many U.S. banks have cut ties with Banco Azteca because of “risk and compliance concerns.“
- For years, that left Banco Azteca holding onto large sums of U.S. currency with no place to offload it.
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