Swiss banker to Venezuelan kleptocrats becomes star witness
The all-star witness to a U.S. criminal investigation into how Venezuelan kleptocrats stole billions in oil wealth from their country is recounting to The Associated Press his remarkable journey from banker to convicted felon
March 29, 2021, 4:04 AM
15 min read
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterEmail this articleMatthias Krull, a former banker for Switzerland’s Julius Baer in Venezuela, poses for a portrait at his home in Miami on March 18, 2021. For two decades, Krull played a singular role in Venezuela as the go-to private banker for government insiders, before pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in Miami federal court in 2018. (AP Photo/Cody Jackson)
MIAMI -- Matthias Krull pulls up his pant leg and slides a gardening shear on the ankle monitor that for two years has been a constant reminder of his crimes.
With a court order in hand, and a child’s voice echoing from the next room, the former Swiss banker snips the hard plastic — releasing a torrent of emotion as he contemplates his past mistakes and hopes for rebuilding what, until his arrest, had been a charmed life.
“Physically, I got used to it, but psychologically it’s liberating,” Krull said from the living room of his rented home in a leafy Miami suburb. “To be able to wear shorts again is a big thing. I was at my son’s soccer games and everybody was in shorts in 100 degrees. I was in long pants.”
Krull's troubles stem from his time as a banker in Venezuela, a nation that has been plagued by epic corruption in two decades of socialist rule, first under the populist President Hugo Chávez, then his handpicked successor, Nicolás Maduro. During that time, Krull, who worked for the Julius Baer Group, played a singular role as the go-to private banker for the so-called Bolichicos — the privileged offspring of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution — as they looked to shuttle their overnight fortunes offshore. Among his would-be clients: Maduro’s stepsons.
But then in 2018, the blond, bespectacled banker was arrested on money laundering charges at Miami’s international airport while vacationing with his family. Thrust into a spotlight he never sought, the normally discreet European began his second act as the all-star witness to a U.S. federal criminal investigation known as Operation Money Flight, which seeks to untangle how Venezuelan kleptocrats stole billions in oil wealth from their country.
By all accounts, Krull’s assistance mapping the shell companies and straw men strung across secretive jurisdictions like Antigua, Malta and Hong Kong where Venezuelans have hidden their ill-gotten wealth has proven decisive. Since pleading guilty in 2018, he has helped prosecutors enlist other Swiss bankers as witnesses, pressed Venezuelan money launderers to surrender and assisted numerous European investigations.
In recognition of those efforts, a judge in September slashed his original 10-year prison sentence by 65%, according to recently unsealed court filings — one of the largest reductions ever in Miami federal court. The judge also relaxed Krull’s probation conditions, allowing him to remove the ankle monitor that kept him confined to his home from 7:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. He is scheduled to start his 42-month prison sentence this summer.
Hovering over his ordeal is a more vexing question: whether anyone else was responsible in the corruption. To date, Krull is the only banker to have been prosecuted in the U.S. in connection with the corruption even though numerous other white-shoe firms for years competed for a piece of what had been one of the world’s hottest markets for wealth management. And while Julius Baer has dismissed his actions as those of a rogue employee, Swiss regulators last year found that the august money house, in its drive for profits, overlooked red flags and incentivized bad behavior, much as it did during an earlier financial scandal involving soccer governing body FIFA.
“The goal was to bring in new money," said Krull, who drifts midsentence between fluent Venezuelan Spanish and thick German-accented English. “They really didn’t care about the portfolio’s profitability.” He added: “If I didn’t take a client, someone else surely would have.”
