By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian bank and trust company is demanding “no less than $33m” in damages from a global payments provider after the latter “unlawfully withheld” more than $18m funds belonging to it.

Deltec Bank & Trust, in a statement issued yesterday in response to Tribune Business inquiries, confirmed that on Monday it initiated legal action against Ibanera and its affiliates, plus their principal, Michael Carbonara, in a bid to redress a “past urgent” situation that had resulted in “overdrawn accounts” due to the loss of these monies.

“The complaint outlines our position regarding Ibanera’s wrongful withholding of Deltec Bank funds. We look forward to resolving this issue through the appropriate legal channels,” a Deltec spokesman wrote in a messaged reply to this newspaper. The battle with Ibanera is Deltec’s latest legal headache, having become embroiled in litigation following FTX’s collapse and a dispute with the US authorities over seized funds.

The Lyford Cay-based institution, though, yesterday received better news over the latter battle. The US Justice Department, in a settlement motion filed with the eastern Virginia federal court, agreed to return to it more than 84 percent - or $37.828m out of $44.828m - that the authorities seized from one of its US accounts on the grounds that it represented the proceeds of a ‘pig butchering’ crypto currency fraud.

With only court approval of that settlement now awaited, Deltec and its US attorneys can now concentrate on their fight to recover the $18m from Ibanera, which was described as a payments or money transmission services provider offering “global connectivity for banking institutions”. The Bahamian bank said it needed Ibanera “to process transactions” on its behalf in “certain jurisdictions” where it needed a payment provider.

“Carbonara promises that Ibanera can be trusted to transmit various currencies and crypto currencies across borders in strict compliance with payment instructions from banks and their clients. Deltec Bank trusted Ibanera to transmit its funds. Instead, Ibanera has stolen them,” Deltec Bank & Trust alleged in its lawsuit, filed in the south Florida federal court on March 3, 2025.

“Ibanera has taken at least $11.037m, plus at least $7m worth of other fiat that indisputably belong to Deltec. Deltec instructed Ibanera to transmit those funds to Deltec on January 6, 2025, and Ibanera was obligated to send Deltec its funds within three days.

“However, three days passed, then a week, then a month, as Deltec made continuing requests of escalating urgency, culminating in a demand from counsel. All the while, Ibanera’s intermediary promised that Ibanera was working on the payment request.”

Deltec is alleging that, more than a month after it issued its instructions, Ibanera replied that “it was somehow contractually entitled to keep funds that it was entrusted to transmit. After an incredulous response from Deltec’s counsel demanding answers, Ibanera abandoned that argument and now contends that Ibanera cannot transmit Deltec’s funds because Ibanera is ‘under audit’ in Singapore”.

The Bahamian financial institution is demanding that Ibanera be ordered to effect “the immediate release” of this $18m and pay “additional damages... of no less than $15m” due to the “interruption of services, interference with business relationships, and third party claims” that have resulted from the funds being withheld.

The lawsuit alleges that Deltec signed an agreement on July 18, 2024, where “Ibanera promised to hold Deltec’s funds in trust for Deltec, and Deltec would pay Ibanera a fee to process transactions on Deltec’s behalf in certain jurisdictions where Deltec required a money services business.

“In other words, while Ibanera has possession of Deltec’s funds, Deltec at all times has and retains beneficial ownership of the funds. Because Ibanera ‘holds in trust’ funds on behalf of Deltec, it owes fiduciary duties to Deltec, the owner of the funds, and must act with honesty, transparency and in the best interests of the owner of the funds,” the Bahamian financial institution asserted.

It alleged that Ibanera used an intermediary agent, IO, to process its fund transfer requests. “On January 6, 2025, Deltec instructed Ibanera, through IO, to transfer millions in mixed fiat from Deltec’s segregated client account at Ibanera to Deltec’s account with BTG. That same day, IO confirmed the transaction request, and Deltec instructed IO and Ibanera to proceed. However, Ibanera did not release the funds,” Deltec alleged.

Despite informing the two money payment providers that the transfer was “urgent”, the transaction had yet to occur nine days later on January 15, 2025. Deltec wrote to both: “Please note that some of these currency transfers are being executed to cover overdraft balances, which we are accruing overdraft interest daily.”

IO replied one day later, saying it had “escalated” Deltec’s request with Ibanera. However, the funds were still not released and Deltec on January 31, 2025, was forced to request the transfer for a sixth time. “Deltec emphasised how it was being harmed by Ibanera’s failure to release the funds,” the lawsuit alleged.

The Bahamian bank and trust company wrote:“[W]e have overdrawn accounts and pending outgoing wires to execute, and the required funds are being held by Ibanera’. Deltec requested that the funds be released by February 4, 2025, and once again emphasised the urgent nature of the transfer, stating ‘we have been more than considera[t]e in getting the below transfers out of Ibanera, however it is now past that urgent level and could end up in litigation if these wires are not executed’.”

Faced with silence, “Deltec’s in-house legal counsel, Lanecia Darville, sent a demand letter to Carbonara” on February 3, 2025. “In the letter, Deltec again demanded the immediate release and transfer of funds held by Ibanera in Deltec’s segregated client account. Deltec reiterated that Ibanera’s delay in executing Deltec’s instructions ‘impedes our ability to meet our financial obligations to our clients and stakeholders’,” the claim alleged.

Ibanera purportedly replied on February 11, 2025, asserting that Deltec “somehow” failed to fully comply with its obligations under both sides’ agreement and that the money payment provider had suffered “unspecified” significant losses as a result. No details were provided to support the allegation, but Ibanera argued this justified withholding the $18m it held in trust for Deltec.

The Bahamian financial institution, asserting that this was a “baseless” reason for retaining its funds for almost two months, said Ms Darville wrote to Ibanera again on February 21, 2015, accusing it of seeking “a pretext to unlawfully” withhold” Deltec’s funds. She demanded their immediate release and transfer, to which Ibanera said the funds were protected and not being misused.

Deltec, though, said Ibanera then claimed that it needed to retain and preserve the funds due to an audit by the Singapore regulators, who oversee its business, as well as its own internal probe and investigation. “Despite this new excuse for non-performance, Ibanera has no right to withhold Deltec’s funds from Deltec - and Ibanera has pointed to no such basis in law or fact,” Deltec alleged.

“Ibanera’s failure to release Deltec’s funds has led to damages, including at least $11.037m plus more than $7m worth of other fiat, interest on the unlawfully withheld funds, and additional damages that Deltec has suffered and will continue to suffer as a result of Ibanera’s breach, in an amount of no less than $15m due to interruption of services, interference with business relationships, third party claims, and other damages.”

Deltec, though, has fared better in recovering funds seized by the US Secret Service during its probe into a multi-million dollar international crypto currency scam. Of the $44.828m taken, the US will retain only $7m, with the majority $37.828m to be paid by the US Treasury Department to Deltec.

“The United States will initiate the return of $31.353m of the seized funds upon the filing of its civil forfeiture complaint. The return of the remaining $6.475m from the defendant funds to the claimant is contingent upon the court entering a judgment forfeiting the sum of $7m to the United States,” the two sides’ settlement deal stipulates.

The US Secret Service had previously alleged that the funds represented laundered fraud proceeds generated by a scam known as “pig butchering”. This involves scammers and con artists setting up “spoofed” Internet domains and websites, with addresses and features similar to those of legitimate crypto currency trading and investment platforms.

They then target victims with “unsolicited” phone calls, using techniques common to those employed in so-called ‘romance’ frauds to groom them, develop a relationship and gain their confidence. Finally, the victims are fooled into investing in crypto currency via the fake platforms that have been created, with the fraudsters stealing all their money.