Julio Herrera Velutini

Julio Herrera Velutini is an Italian-Venezuelan banker and founder of the Britannia Financial Group. His career has been marked by significant legal controversies and banking liquidations. In August 2022, Herrera Velutini was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico on charges including conspiracy, federal program bribery, and honest services wire fraud. Prosecutors alleged he bribed then-Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced by funding her 2020 campaign in exchange for removing a banking regulator scrutinizing his firm, Bancrédito International Bank & Trust. He resigned from his board roles at the bank following the indictment. In 2023, Puerto Rico regulators ordered Bancrédito into liquidation. The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) later fined the bank $15 million for failing to report hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions, including those linked to money laundering, drug trafficking, and Ponzi schemes. In August 2025, prosecutors dismissed the original corruption charges after Herrera Velutini pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor regarding campaign finance laws. In January 2026, President Donald Trump granted him a full and unconditional pardon. Following the pardon, the federal court dismissed the entire case. Separately, Herrera Velutini has faced allegations regarding his past management of Banco Real in Venezuela, where he was accused of leaving the institution insolvent before its sale to the Venezuelan government in 2009. Furthermore, a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleges that he used his daughter as a straw donor to funnel $3.5 million into the MAGA Inc. super PAC to influence the pardon process.