# Bancredito-Ballard Partners Lobbying Retainer [[Ballard Partners]], the lobbying firm closest to the Trump White House, has reported **$630,000 every quarter of 2026** from [[Bancredito Holding Corporation]]. That is $1.89 million through September, or about $2.5 million a year. The client is listed in an unusual way. Ballard does not report Bancredito directly. It reports "**Chris Kise & Associates, P.A. on behalf of Bancredito Holding Corporation**," meaning the money is routed through the law firm of [[Chris Kise]], one of [[Donald Trump]]'s personal lawyers. | Quarter (2026) | Reported income | Posted | |---|---|---| | Q1 | $630,000 | April 15 | | Q2 | $630,000 | July 14 | | Q3 | $630,000 | October 16 | ## Whose bank this is Bancrédito International Bank was the Puerto Rico bank of Venezuelan banker [[Julio Herrera Velutini]]. It wound down in 2022 under Puerto Rico's financial regulator. - **August 2022:** Herrera Velutini was indicted on federal bribery charges. Prosecutors alleged he financed the campaign of then-governor Wanda Vázquez in exchange for the removal of the regulator who was examining his bank. - **August 2025:** he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor campaign-finance violation, and the felony charges were dropped. - **January 2026:** Trump pardoned him, along with [[Wanda Vázquez Garced]] and his consultant [[Mark Rossini]]. Full sequence: [[Herrera Velutini Pardon]]. His daughter [[Isabela Herrera]] gave $3.5 million to [[MAGA Inc]] across December 2024 and July 2025; a Campaign Legal Center complaint alleges she was a straw donor for her father. She also pledged $2.5 million to the [[White House Ballroom Project]]. ## Why it matters These payments began in the quarter of the pardon and have stayed at the same level since. The filing is a lobbying record, not proof of what was bought. But the client's owner has now: 1. been pardoned by the president, 2. had family money sent to his super PAC and his ballroom, and 3. paid his closest lobbying firm through his personal lawyer. These are three different channels to the same White House. ## What the Q3 filing says | | | |---|---| | **Issue** | Banking: "Banking regulatory restrictions and requirements" | | **Agency lobbied** | Department of the Treasury | | **Lobbyists** | [[Brian Ballard]] himself, Sylvester Lukis, and Amaryllis Fox Kennedy | Fox Kennedy was Deputy Director of National Intelligence in 2025–26 and sat on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, according to the filing's own disclosure of her prior government posts. The bank no longer operates, and the filing doesn't say which restrictions are at issue. Treasury is the department that runs sanctions and anti-money-laundering enforcement. ## See Also - [[Ballard Partners]] - [[Brian Ballard]] - [[Chris Kise]] - [[Julio Herrera Velutini]] - [[Herrera Velutini Pardon]] - [[MAGA Inc]] - [[White House Ballroom Project]]