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A Swiss banker who was with Julius Baer until five months ago notched up the maximum U.S. sentence for helping laundering money linked to Venezuela's state-backed oil firm.

Former Julius Baer banker Matthias Krull was sentenced to a ten-year prison term on Monday by a judge in Miami for his part in a $1.2 billion money-rinsing scheme linked to PDVSA, Venezuela's state-backed oil firm, according to «Bloomberg» and «Citywire Americas».

The Krull affair has rocked the Swiss bank, which in under investigation by Switzerland's regulator and is also scouring its accounts in an internal probe. The sentencing of Krull comes as Julius Baer rethinks its Latin American business under ex-Goldman Sachs banker Beatriz Sanchez – and as rivals lurk.

$5 Million Bail

Sobbing at his sentencing, the 45-year-old Krull apologized to the people of Venezuela, where nearly 2 million people have fled the country amid shortages of food and medicine, and as violent crime and inflation spiral out of control.

The father of three young children, Krull also apologized to the U.S. government and his family. He had been released on a $5 million bail (it is unclear if he made bail himself) and will begin his sentence in April.

Julius Baer Hit

Julius Baer appears to have been blindsided by the scandal. The Swiss private bank lost its long-time CEO, Boris Collardi, to rival Pictet last fall. New management under CEO Bernhard Hodler has been displeased at how the bank has been splashed onto the front page of broadsheets since then.