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ProfilePerson

Bernardo Navarro

Executive

PPP · EIDL · PPPLF
Type
Person
Role
Executive
Programs
PPP, EIDL, PPPLF
Updated

The profile

Founder of Benworth Capital Partners, which originated 311,022 PPP loans worth about $4.23 billion in 2021 through Womply's Fast Lane platform. A JAMS arbitrator awarded Womply approximately $117.9 million against Benworth in 2024; the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's suit against Benworth and the Navarros settled in September 2025 with no admission of liability. U.S. Ambassador to Peru since February 2026.

Identity and role

Bernardo "Bernie" Navarro is the founder and president of Benworth Capital Partners, a Miami non-bank lender he started in 2008. He owned and controlled the Florida lending entity, signed its agreements with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and used the loan-origination technology of Oto Analytics, which does business as Womply.

Biography

A 2013 Miami Today profile describes Navarro as born and raised in Miami, a University of Miami and Harvard graduate who had "always been involved in the mortgage business"; the Wikipedia entry gives a University of Miami BBA and a Harvard ALM. In 2008 he founded Benworth Capital Partners in Coral Gables as a private real-estate and small-business lender.

He chaired the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees and was president of the Latin Builders Association, where he led the creation of its construction academy (Wikipedia entry, secondary; Miami Today, 2013).

The company and its PPP/EIDL role

In early 2021 Benworth contracted with Womply to use the "PPP Fast Lane Technology" and "Referral Platform," and on that platform it originated more than 300,000 PPP loans during the 2021 program window: 311,022 loans worth about $4.23 billion, by the loan-level data. On Womply's accounting, it booked more than $680 million in lender fees. To fund the loans Benworth drew on the Federal Reserve's PPP Liquidity Facility: the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco advanced it roughly $4.3 billion over the life of the facility, with a PPPLF peak of $4.19 billion on August 11, 2021. Benworth signed its first PPPLF Letter of Agreement on May 4, 2020, with two more in January 2021 and January 2023, each incorporating the Fed's Operating Circular No. 10. The lender held the legal role and the guarantee-backed economics; it rented the technology.

Their own relief

Benworth was itself a PPP borrower: a $110,600 PPP loan from Seacoast National Bank, marked "Paid in Full" in the SBA data (a status that covers both forgiveness and repayment), plus a $150,000 EIDL (facilitators' own-aid findings).

No PPP-fraud finding, criminal charge, or government enforcement action against Bernardo Navarro arising from the PPP exists in the public record.

The Womply arbitration. Womply contended Benworth refused to pay the fees it owed for the 2021 origination volume, served a breach notice in July 2021, and in August 2021 commenced a JAMS arbitration in San Francisco. Deposed in the arbitration on December 16, 2022, Navarro was asked whether Benworth Florida had paid Benworth Capital Partners PR LLC, the Navarros' Puerto Rico company, $171 million in 2021, at $550 a loan on about 311,000 PPP loans. He answered "Possibly," then "To the best of my knowledge, yes," and agreed that all of the payments had been made in the summer of 2021. The arbitrator's Order No. 5, of January 17, 2023, says that well before Benworth's October 1, 2021 answer in the arbitration, "Benworth had transferred $171 million to Benworth Puerto Rico." After a seven-day evidentiary hearing, the arbitrator granted Womply's three contract claims, held the fee provisions not void, illegal or unenforceable, and denied Benworth's counterclaims except one concerning loan-file and platform access; the Final Award issued May 30, 2024 and a Corrected Final Award on June 26, 2024 of approximately $117.9 million — $86,299,892 in contract damages, $25,363,697.68 in finance charges as of May 30, 2024, and $6,256,665.04 in fees and costs (JAMS award case file).

The Federal Reserve lawsuit. After the SBA denied guaranty purchase on more than 3,600 pledged loans (over $60 million in requests) and after Benworth told the Reserve Bank in late 2023 that it might lack the funds to pay the looming arbitration award, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco issued a default notice on February 27, 2024. It invoked the recourse provisions of the PPPLF agreements and in July 2024 sued Benworth and the Navarros. The complaint alleged that the Florida lender sent more than $50 million to the Puerto Rico company between 2021 and 2023, leaving itself insolvent and unable to pay its debts as they came due. The Reserve Bank said it had no transaction-level information on transfers for 2021 or 2022. It also alleged that Navarro had the lender pay him dividends of at least $48,240,502.75, part of it between 2021 and 2023, and at least $804,860.89 more between January 1 and May 23, 2024. The Reserve Bank pleaded recourse conversion, fraudulent transfer under three states' laws, alter-ego, veil-piercing, and conversion.

On April 2, 2025, Judge Gina Méndez-Miró denied Benworth's motion to dismiss in full. Benworth and Navarro answered two weeks later, denying the transfer and dividend allegations as drafted. They said the Puerto Rico company had been paid for services under the loan-servicing agreements and that the distributions to Navarro were not prohibited by the PPPLF letters of agreement. A discovery fight followed over a QuickBooks accounting database Benworth was ordered to produce, claimed it had lost server access to, then said was being checked for malware, and never produced. On September 10, 2025 the case ended in a confidential settlement and dismissal with prejudice: no money judgment, no findings of fact, and no admission of liability by any defendant. Benworth's president, Henry Jimenez, said the company believed the suit was politically motivated and that the settlement agreement "explicitly states there was no finding of fault or admission of liability."

Navarro was nominated for the Peru ambassadorship in June 2025; the Reserve Bank suit settled in September 2025, while his confirmation was pending. The Miami Herald covered the settlement under the headline "Awaiting ambassador confirmation, Bernie Navarro settles with Federal Reserve bank."

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Navarro is the U.S. Ambassador to Peru, nominated by President Trump in June 2025 (Miami Herald via InsuranceNewsNet); he assumed the office on February 3, 2026 (Wikipedia entry, secondary). Benworth continues to operate, with offices in Coral Gables and Puerto Rico, now under president Henry Jimenez. The Federal Reserve suit is settled; the Womply arbitration concluded with the arbitrator's award to Womply.

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources

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