We promised to keep you posted on developments surrounding a March 13, 2009 charge by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that an internal report we obtained and posted was a forgery. We believed the report we posted –- and upon which we based a Feb. 12 article – was an authentic draft.

So we asked the bank if we could see the final version of the report it turned over to its executive board of directors. The bank declined. However, we were able to obtain a copy and present it here for side-by-side comparison. (Here is the bank’s response to that report.)

With the exception of the cover letters and a preface added to the final document, we believe the two versions of the report, pages 1 through 22, are similar enough to support the authenticity of the November version we posted.

You can compare the November and December versions of the report yourself.

Both versions certainly establish that the IDB had to write down the value of its investment portfolio by $1.9 billion in the past 18 months because it invested in mortgage-backed securities. Both versions blame risky trading and recommend reforms.  

In a separate bank document we obtained, we see that the IDB budgeted $1.1 million for the 22-page report. We provided the bank with copies of these documents prior to posting them so the bank could review them for authenticity or comment on them otherwise.

The bank declined to comment, but you can click here to see the bank’s own PowerPoint presentation on its investment losses.  

You can also read how IDB’s president, Luis Alberto Moreno, explained the bank’s losses to Congress: Feb. 2009 / Mar. 2009.