Juan Falconí Puig

Early life and education

Falconí graduated from the Universidad Católica de Guayaquil in February 1973 with a degree in social and political sciences. He received a law degree from the same institution in December 1975, and three years later earned a doctorate in law, also from that university.

Academic activities

Beginning in 1975, Falconí was a professor of civil litigation at the Universidad Católica de Guayaquil, and the next year he became head of that school's faculty. In June 1982 he was the faculty representative on the board of Faculty of Law. He became dean of the law school at the Universidad Católica de Santiago de Guayaquil in April 1985, and became president of the Teachers' Disciplinary Tribunal at the same institution in August 1986.

Legal activities

In July 1975, he was the Guayaquil Bar Association's delegate to the First National Conference of Customs Techniques. In March 1979, he was an elected member of the legal section of the Guayaquil Bar Association in civil procedures. He became a member of the Ecuadorian Institute of Procedural Law in August 1982, and Chief Referee of the Court of Arbitration of the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce in March 1985. He was named the Minister Permanent Associate Judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Guayaquil in April 1985. He became a member of the Advisory Commission of the Constitutional Court in October 1988, and Permanent Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Justice in June 1999.

Political activities

In December 1976 he became secretary of the municipality of Guayaquil. In March 1981, he became Vice President of the International Chamber of Commerce of Ecuador. He was named Minister of Industry, Trade, Integration, and Fisheries in January 1991, President of the Cartagena Agreement Commission in December 1991, President of Ecuadorian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce in October 1992, Secretary of State Minister for Production in October 1999, and President of the Board of Foreign Trade and Investment (COMEXI) in January 2000.

Banking and business activities

In January 1982 he became a director of Banco del Pacifico. He founded Plainbridge, a Panamanian bank, on October 25, 1982. He became Chairman of the Board of Azucarera Tropical Americana S.A. Aztra in October 1988, and of Andina de Fomento CAF in March 1992. In October 1999 he became President of Corporación Financiera Nacional. He became Superintendent of Banks in April 2000.

Financial crisis of 1998-99

Falconí was supposedly a key player in Ecuador's financial crisis of 1998-99, which caused $8 billion in damage to the Ecuadorian economy, lost many Ecuadorians their life savings, led to the exodus of many Ecuadorians from the country, precipitated a “desperate leap to the dollarization of the economy,” and eventuated in the overthrow of the government of Jamil Mahuad on January 21, 2000. On April 9, 2007, President Rafael Correa ordered the formation of a committee to look into the causes of the crisis, and on July 7 the committee's final report was submitted. Falconí was one of those found to be most responsible.

At the time of the crisis, Falconí was Minister of Industry and Chairman of the National Finance Corporation (CFN). He was complicit in many of the government actions at the center of the crisis, notably the freezing of bank accounts and the issuance to account holders of CDRs (Rescheduled Deposit Certificates) worth far less than the sums in their accounts. Falconí's close collaborator in these activities, Pedro Delgado, who in 1999 was the Risk Manager of CFN, are said to have “protected the corrupt bankers” on their watch. Delgado is now a fugitive from justice.

Filanbanco case

The Filanbanco case, in which supporters of Filanbanco view Falconí as the leading malefactor, has been described as “one the most blatant political interventions carried out in Latin America against a banking institution” and as “one of the greatest acts of arbitrary judiciousness committed on the continent.”

Filanbanco, which for many years had been the leading banking institution in Ecuador, was reportedly solid enough to survive the 1998-99 economic crisis, but it was nationalized and, in an operation that was viewed as highly questionable, and in which Falconí played a key role, was merged with another bank, La Previsora, in order that Filanbanco might assume the smaller bank's enormous debts. La Previsora, and other banks, Cofiec, Popular, Pacifico, and Progreso, that were involved at the time in similarly controversial arrangements, were said to have close ties to powerful government figures, including Falconí.

As a result of these actions, Filanbanco collapsed in 2001. The government, purportedly to cover up its own malfeasance, then sued the owners of Filanbanco, the Isaias family, for embezzlement, but the prosecutor, lacking proof, withdrew the accusation. In 2003, a new lawsuit against the Isaias family was initiated by Falconí; this new set of charges, too, was dismissed by the National Court of Justice in 2010. Falconí denied being the “mastermind” behind the seizure of the Isaias family's assets in 2008, but said he supported the action.

2000 impeachment

Falconí was named Superintendent of Banks in 2000, but later that year was removed from office by the Ecuadorian legislature because of his involvement in the merger of Filanbanco and La Previsora.

An article headlined “A Mud Bath,” published in November 2000, reported at length on the three-day Congressional impeachment of Falconí, which involved 30 hours of speeches and ended with Falconí being censured and removed from office. “I feel betrayed,” he said about the government and, especially, President Noboa. One of Falconí's brothers complained that nobody in the government had stood up for Falconí, who had been unable to defend himself against charges of influence peddling and of conflict of interest in connection with irregular activities involving the Plainbridge Bank and $1.9 million in CDRs.

Falconí presented a complaint to the Supreme Court of Justice in March 2002, charging Tax Minister Mariana Yépez, prosecutor Guillermo Mosquera, former Supreme Court president Galo Pico, and Jorge Montero, fiscal agent of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Attorney General, with colluding to cause him harm by prosecuting him on false charges

2002-3 forgery charges

In August 2002, the Public Ministry ordered the Supreme Court of Justice to initiate a preliminary investigation of Falconí and Iván Ojeda, a Guayaquil attorney, on charges of forgery. The alleged forgery was said to have been committed during Falconí's impeachment in November 2000, when he had purportedly attempted to peddle influence with the use of cards on which MP Fernando Rosero's signature had been forged.

At a preliminary hearing in the forgery case, convened by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Justice, Armando Bermeo, in early November 2003, Falconí accused prosecutors of procedural errors that, he said, effectively denied him his legitimate right to defense. The next day, Bermeo dismissed the forgery charges against Falconí, adding that Rosero's complaint was neither malicious nor reckless.

2003 embezzlement charges

The prosecutor's office issued an accusatory judgment in late 2003 against Falconí and two others, Gonzalo Hidalgo and Martha Quintana, for embezzling funds during Falconí's tenure as Superintendent of Banks. Falconí was said to have permitted a transfer of CDRs between the state bank and Plainbridge. The members of Plainbridge's board, at the time of the alleged embezzlement, were Falconí's daughter Priscila Falconí Avellán and Quintana, an employee of Falconí's law firm. Falconí denied all wrongdoing during the financial crisis, placing the blame on bankers who stole silver “to live like kings in Miami.”

2005 accusation by Rafael Cuesta Caputi

In February 2005, Rafael Cuesta Caputi, Vice President of news for TC Television, with whom Falconí was embroiled at the time in several libel cases, told the prosecutor of the Guayas Judicial Police that Falconí had made an attempt on his life. According to Cuesta, he had driven out of a parking structure when Falconí appeared, struck the car's hood and windshield, and screamed: “Get out, so I can kill you right here!” Falconí surrendered to authorities and was jailed. He claimed that he and his assistant had been walking past the parking structure when Cuesta's vehicle came speeding out and almost hit him, causing him to verbally assault the motorist. Guards at the parking structure, however, supported Cuesta's account. Two days after being jailed, Falconí was released.

2007 embezzlement decision

In July 2007, the Supreme Court found evidence of embezzlement in the merger of the banks Filanbanco and La Previsora, and called for a full trial of the former managers of both institutions, Alvaro Guerrero and Gonzalo Hidalgo, who were also named as accomplices of Falconí and of Luis Villacis, former director of the Deposit Guarantee Agency. The Court additionally called for Falconí to be tried on embezzlement charges in the same matter.

2011 candidacy for the National Court of Justice

Falconí was the most controversial of the many candidates for seats on the National Court of Justice in 2011.

Former state comptroller and former legislator Fernando Rosero raised 17 separate objections to Falconí's candidacy for the National Court of Justice in October 2011. Among the issues of concern to Rosero were Falconí's purchase of non-functional locomotives from France and his involvement during the banking crisis in actions that had benefited the Cofiec bank, in which he and his then spouse, Patricia Avellan, had owned stock. Rosero said that appointment of Falconí to the judiciary would violate the constitutional requirement that judges have a record of “rectitude.”

Legislator Abdalá Bucaram Pulley also presented arguments against the appointment of Falconí to the judiciary. Bucaram argued that Falconí should be disqualified from consideration on the grounds that he had submitted incomplete documents along with his application for the post. Bucaram also mentioned rumors that Falconí's appointment was part of a quid-pro-quo involving Alexis Mera, legal secretary to the President. President of the National Court of Justice to Juan Falconí Puig in return for favors. Bucaram insisted that “Justice can not fall into the hands of a criminal...a former superintendent of banks who caused $1.425 million in damage to the country with the Provisora merger and who froze Ecuador's accounts, causing more than four million Ecuadorians to leave the country.”

At a November hearing about his possible appointment to the National Court of Justice, Falconí spent nearly ten hours defending himself against various charges. Among the eight members of the hearing board who challenged his candidacy was former MP Freddy Bravo, who accused Falconí of having benefited from the banking crisis of 1999 and having signed the decree which froze Ecuadorian accounts. Bravo questioned Falconí's integrity and expressed concern that the National Court of Justice was seeking to cover up what he called “bank robbery.”

Falconí, in his defense, said that most of his accusers were “proxies” of Roberto and William Isaías, former heads of Filanbanco. Another accuser of Falconí's, Assemblyman Abdalá Bucaram Pulley, questioned Falconí's candidacy on many grounds, including Falconí's role in the banking crisis and his involvement in the scandals surrounding the Cofiec, Progreso, and Pacifico banks.

Outside the building in which the hearing took place, a large crowd of people (ranging from one to three hundred protested Falconí's nomination to the court. Among them was Francisco Santander, who simulated a crucifixion, accusing Falconí of causing the death of his brother, Nelson Briceño Santander, in December 1991.

Ultimately, Falconí's name did not appear on a list of 63 eligible candidates for the National Court of Justice issued on December 29, 2011.

New Plainbridge investigation

In 2013, the Public Prosecutor was ordered to investigate Falconí and his daughter Priscilla Falconí Avellan in connection with the irregular activities involving CDRs and the Plainbridge bank.

Ambassador to the Court of St. James

On June 10, 2013, it was announced that Falconí had been named Ambassador to the Court of St. James. On June 12, confirmation came that the British Government had accepted his appointment.

Selected publications

Journalism

Falconí has written for the editorial page of Hoy (Quito) since 1984, and for the editorial page of El Universal (Guayaquil) since 1997.

Honors and awards

In 1973, 1974, and 1975, Falconí won student awards conferred by the Law Students' Association of the Universidad Católica de Guayaquil.