The Isaias Group

The Isais Group ("Grupo Isaías") is an Ecuadorian business conglomerate owned by two brothers, Roberto Isais and William Isais. For decades, the group owned companies across several industries, including commercial, real estate, industrial, agroindustrial, oil, and media. The group's most notable company is Filanbanco, which was the largest bank in Ecuador in the 1990s.

Background

In 1985, Filanbanco was the sixth largest bank in Ecuador. By 1994, it had become the largest. Roberto served as executive president and William served as executive vice president until ownership of the bank was transferred to the Ecuadorian state.

By 2006, the group's six largest companies were: Ecuadorian Television Network (TC Television) (57 million), Industrial and Commercial Society EICA (39 million), Compañía Televisión del Pacífico (Gamavisión) (38.9 million), Petromanabí (26 million), Producargo Producer of Alcohols (22.6 million), and EICA Emilio Isais Compañía de Comercio (21.5 million).

The Filanbanco case

During the 1998-1999 economic crisis, over 20 banks in Ecuador became insolvent. The government, however, focused all its blame for the crisis on the Isais brothers and Filanbanco, which had close political ties to the opposition party.

At the end of the financial crisis, the Ecuadorian government assumed control of Filanbanco, which it eventually closed down in 2001.

Beginning of the 1998-1999 economic crisis

At the end of the nineties, Ecuador went through external and internal problems with its economy. The loss of the manufacturing sector in general had a severe impact on the financial system. Ecuadorian banking suffered a serious crisis from 1998 to 1999, when nearly all banks requested liquidity credits from the Central Bank of Ecuador (ECB). These loans were granted by the ECB in 1998 and were based on solvency. ECB certified the solvency of Filanbanco and approved the bank for access to stabilization loans.

Only three years after assuming control of Filanbanco, the government shut it down. In 2002, the government took steps to liquidate the bank, but the process was extremely slow. At the time of its closure, the bank had a $950 million loan portfolio.

Controversial "bank embezzlement" charges

As the bank began to rapidly lose money while it was under government control (a report issued during the time that the state owned and ran Filanbanco revealed that the bank had lost 814 million dollars during the period in which it was managed by the government), the government blamed the Isais brothers, and began to scapegoat the two men. In June 2000, the Ecuadorian Attorney General Falconi Puig charged the Isais brothers with "bank embezzlement." Up until the charges were filed, such a crime didn't exist in the country. The government quickly and quietly added it to the penal code and then filed the charges.

The bank embezzlement charges were controversial. For example, the manager of the Central Bank of Ecuador told the Attorney General that there had been no misuse of funds while Filanbanco was under control of the Isais Group, and charges were filed anyway. By 2004, the issue had reached the country's Supreme Court. However, then-president Lucio Gutierrez, hearing rumors that the Supreme Court might rule in favor of the Isais brothers, dismissed every judge on the Supreme Court. (Gutierrez was “politically crippled and on the brink of removal from office” before he dismissed the court).

Three years after the government began investigating the Isais for the alleged bank embezzlement, the Chief Prosecutor of Ecuador declared that there was no bank embezzlement. His conclusion was ignored by the government.

President Rafael Correa and the seizures of over 150 companies

The issue was quiet for several years until 2007, when Rafael Correa began as president of Ecuador after winning as a left-wing economist. As soon as he took office, he formed a new committee, which he highly publicized, to investigate the Filanbanco “bank robbery” of 1998-1999. Even before the investigation began, Correa repeatedly used the term “corrupt bankers” when referring to Filanbanco’s owners, the Isais’.

In 2008, on Correa's orders, the Ecuadorian government seized over 150 Isais Group companies "under false pretenses." The stated purpose that the government gave was that it was attempting to compensate account holders of the bank Filanbanco. Among the companies seized were media companies owned by the Isais brothers, including prominent media outlets TC Television, Gamavision, and Cablevision. The Isais Group’s TV channels captured 40 percent of the nation’s evening news audience.

After seizing the companies, Correa appointed close friends and political allies to run the businesses. El Telegrafo, a prominent newspaper that the state had seized, was seized for the official reason of selling it off and using the money to pay back Filanbanco account holders who had lost money. Instead, the government kept the newspaper and made it an official government public newspaper.

Although the stated purpose of the seizures was the liquidate the companies and use the proceeds to pay back Filanbanco account holders, the government kept ownership of the companies. Within years, the performance of the companies rapidly deteriorated and most were heavily devalued.

Move to the U.S.

Facing unfair allegations, the brothers moved to Miami, Florida, where they continued running other businesses. They own a number of properties and are partners and investors in MIA TV, CNN Latino and other media channels in New York, Orlando, and Tampa Bay.

Ecuador even attempted to extradite the two men. In March 2019, Judge Kathleen Williams of the Federal Circuit of Florida denied deportation. The government also tried to sue the two men for damages in a U.S. court, but the court denied the government's claim.

United Nations ruling

In 2016, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled that "Mandate 13", a measure quickly passed by the Ecuadorian legislature to approve seizure of of The Isais Group's assets, violated the right to due process of the Isaiah brothers, protected by Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Ecuador is a subscriber.

In 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (OHCHR) ruled that former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa violated the civil rights of the Isais brothers. OHCHR ordered Ecuador to fully restore the seized properties to the Isais brothers.

The ruling "brings to light the depth of Correa’s corruption and abuse of power." After seizing their businesses, Correa even went so far as to pass an amendment to the country’s constitution openly directed at the Isais men. The amendment (Mandate No. 13) made it expressly illegal for the brothers to file legal actions. It also said that any judge who even heard such a case would be dismissed. In its ruling, OHCHR ruled that Mandate No. 13 violated Isais’ rights.