Development bank fires director after ethics probe

FILE – Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, President Mauricio Claver-Carone, speaks to the press in La Paz, Bolivia, Jan. 15, 2020. An investigation into the former Trump official who heads Latin America’s biggest development bank found evidence that he carried on a romantic relationship with his chief of staff. The Associated Press obtained a confidential report by a law firm hired by the Inter-American Development Bank’s board triggered by an anonymous complaint of misconduct against its president, Mauricio Claver-Carone. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

MIAMI (AP) — Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank have voted to fire its president, Mauricio Claver-Carone, after an ethics investigation found he carried on a relationship with a subordinate, a person familiar with the vote told The Associated Press.

The governors had until Tuesday to vote electronically on whether to sack Claver-Carone, but enough ballots had been cast by Monday afternoon to remove the first American to lead the bank, the person said.

An investigation conducted at the bank board’s request determined that Claver-Carone violated ethics rules by raising the salary of his chief of staff, with whom he had a romantic relationship from at least 2019, when both worked at the White House, according to a copy of the report obtained by the AP.

Claver-Carone has denied the relationship and said that the investigation was seriously flawed.

The bank’s executive board voted unanimously last week to urge governors to remove Claver-Carone. According to bank rules, executive vice president Reina Mejia, a Honduran national who spent most of her career at Citibank in Central America, will take over from Claver-Carone.