Antonio Bunay: “I just followed instructions”

Antonio Bunay

In an interview with the former CEO of Bank COFIEC, Antonio Bunay, he explained why he left the country after the scandal of the credit given to the Argentinean Gaston Duzac. “I was out almost four months due to matters related to my profession,” he said while during a conversation on December 11 (2011) with the former president of the Central Bank of Ecuador, Pedro Delgado, both agreed that it was best if he retired from the bank.

Regarding the contact of Duzac with COFIEC, Bunay said it was Pedro Delgado who called him to tell him that there was a mission in Argentina and therefore subsequently met with Duzac, who presented a technology project to develop the agriculture in Ecuador, through companies controlled by the Trust AGD-CFN. Although the Argentine project was misplaced, Bunay said the market study assured it was viable.

The former official defended the granting of the $ 800,000 credit, explaining that although Duzac was an Argentinean who came and went and had no guarantees themselves, that was not merely as creditworthy and less if the guarantees offered by a third company. He added that he can speak eloquently about Duzac and the credit, “but acted transparently. If they mean that something was unsupervised from a document that does not mean it would delegitimize the credit.”

In the absence of basic data and to financial support, Bunay explained that for a transaction to come to fruition a Credit Committee must have a report from the Credit Manager, without that there would be no Committee report. Although the recordings were presented in which it was clearly heard the talk about the failures of credit, and persistence of Bunay for its approval. When questioned about this and the arguing that the manager was forced to present a favorable report when this was not the case, Bunay said, “That’s funny. If she disagreed with the operation she only had to withdraw the report. ” He added that it was Delgado who saw fit to hire the lady.

After the credit approval, which proved to be a fiasco, Bunay defended his actions saying: “I’m an administrator, I have a boss who is the Board and in the case of Duzac I just followed instructions.” When asked if it was Delgado who requested approval credit to Duzac, the former banker said: “My relationship with Delgado was highly professional. He was very respectful in his actions regarding the management of the bank. What I did not know is what was Francisco Endara doing in the bank the day the money was being given.”