Court orders JPMorgan to turn over $7.5m from blocked account
A New York federal court has ordered JPMorgan Chase to transfer over $7.5 million from a blocked account linked to Colombia’s FARC rebel group to a terror victim judgment holder.
In her 12 February ruling Judge Valerie Caproni directed JPMorgan to turn over the funds to Antonio Caballero from an account held by Postar Intertrade Ltd., which is owned by US-sanctioned Venezuelan businessman Samark Lopez Bello through Yakima Trading Corp.
‘The Blocked Account is the property of Postar, which is indirectly owned by Lopez Bello, whose interest in the Blocked Account is the basis for the blocking of the account under 31 C.F.R. Part 598,’ the court said.
The account containing $7,534,412.03 was established in February 2017 after discussions with Bunge Latin America LLC and blocked under Foreign Narcotics Kingpin sanctions after the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) designated Lopez Bello and Yakima that same month.
Caballero, who holds an Anti-Terrorism Act judgment against FARC, served a writ on JPMorgan in March 2021. The court found Lopez Bello to be an ‘agency or instrumentality’ of FARC, allowing seizure of his assets under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
