BOMBSHELL – Banco Azteca, a Mexican bank long alleged to be used by drug cartels, flew $26 million in cash across the U.S.-Mexico border straight to Eric Hovde’s bank – WisPolitics

MADISON, Wis. — A shocking report this morning from Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Banco Azteca, a bank reportedly tied to the Mexican cartel, smuggled $26 million in cash across the U.S.-Mexico border to Eric Hovde’s bank in California.

As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel detailed, Banco Azteca cut off by several other US banks over “risk and compliance concerns” following reports that the bank was involved in cartel activities. An executive at the bank was recently indicted by the federal government for attempting to bribe a member of Congress to get U.S. banks to do business with the bank again. Despite this, Eric Hovde’s bank flew $26 million from Mexico City to Irvine, California in December as part of a deal with Banco Azteca.

The shocking revelation comes as Hovde refuses to disclose the millions of dollars worth of foreign banks and governments his bank does business with. What else is Hovde hiding?

Read more below:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bice: Democrats question Eric Hovde about his bank’s $26 million deal with troubled Mexican bank

By: Dan Bice

• Banco Azteca, the tenth largest financial institution in Mexico, has had its share of troubles in recent years.
• Was accused in previous news reports of having ties to the Mexican drug cartel.
• Rejected as a financial partner by some US banks due to “risk and compliance concerns.”
• And now he’s embroiled in a bribery scandal in Texas involving a U.S. congressman.
• But Sunwest Bank, the Utah financial institution run by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, has no qualms about doing business with them.
• In December, Banco Azteca sent $26.2 million in cash to Sunwest on four plane flights as part of a massive currency conversion called “repatriation,” documents 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 insight into how Hovde runs his businesses by putting personal financial interests ahead of other concerns.
• Democratic Party spokesman Arik Wolk said Sunwest’s transactions with Banco Azteca are “extremely concerning,” especially given Azteca’s alleged past ties to the drug cartel. He added, however, that Democrats were not alleging that Hovde or Sunwest had done anything illegal.
• “Hovde is willing to do anything to enrich himself, even moving money across the border for a bank suspected of working with criminal groups that smuggle deadly fentanyl into our state,” Wolk alleged.
• As of 2021, Banco Azteca had no correspondent banks in the US through which it could transfer US currency.
• Over the past decade, several news reports, including two from Reuters, have linked Banco Azteca to Mexican gangs that are the primary suppliers of cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other illegal narcotics to the U.S.
• In 2023, a Reuters reporter wrote that drug cartels use remittances — money transfers favored by migrant workers — to send illicit proceeds back to Mexico.
• The Reuters reporter said he saw five people on motorcycles collecting money from people leaving branches of three banks, including Banco Azteca. Locals said they were couriers for the Sinaloa cartel, collecting drug money sent in wire transfers.
• In a 2014 story, Reuters quoted a prominent anti-kidnapping activist as saying that Mexican gangs involved in kidnapping migrants ask for the money to be sent to Banco Azteca. The Yale Journal of International Affairs also reported that Banco Azteca was one of four banks the Mexican cartel used to process extortion payments.
• Just over a decade ago, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency investigated Banco Azteca’s ties to its then-correspondent bank in the U.S., Lone Star National Bank of Pharr, and found money laundering concerns. Repeatedly fined and fined, Lone Star soon ended its relationship with Banco Azteca.
• Other financial institutions, including Fifth Third Cincinnati and CBW Bank, soon followed suit.
• According to a May article in the Wall Street Journal: Banco Azteca has struggled to do business with U.S. banks since regulators began enforcing rules to crack down on money laundering, drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion. Many U.S. banks have cut ties with Banco Azteca over “risk and compliance concerns.”
• For years, Banco Azteca held large sums of US dollars without being able to do anything about it.