Bancolombia Announces a Decision by the Colombian Attorney General’s Office
Bancolombia S.A. (“Bancolombia”) (NYSE: CIB) announces that the Colombian Vice Attorney General’s Office (Vicefiscal General de la Nacion) issued an order in second instance in connection with the investigations surrounding the acquisition by Bancolombia (formerly Banco Industrial Colombiano S.A.) of Banco de Colombia S.A. and their subsequent merger (the “Acquisition”).
The order (i) confirms the decision issued in the first instance finding that the prescriptive periods relating to the allegation of willful misconduct by a public officer (prevaricato por accion) had expired, (ii) reverses the preclusion order issued in the first instance to close the investigations into the allegations of willful neglect by a public officer (prevaricato por omision), with the purpose of determining whether the prescriptive periods have expired for each accused individual, (iii) reverses the preclusion order issued in the first instance to close the investigations into the allegations of fraud and (iv) orders the consolidation of the legal proceedings relating to fraud. We note that in the parallel criminal investigation related to allegations of fraud, the Colombian Attorney General issued a preclusion order barring further investigation into such allegations on July 31, 2009.
The investigations covered by the Colombian Vice Attorney General’s order relate to allegations against the President of Bancolombia, members of the board of directors of Banco Industrial Colombiano S.A. in office at the time of the merger with Banco de Colombia S.A., members of the board of directors of the Central Bank of the Republic of Colombia and certain officers of the Colombian Superintendency of Finance.
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