Charles V gave the Welser bank Venezuela for its loans, and a Spanish governor had the head of the firm's son killed there in 1546

Bartholomäus Welser (1484 to 1561) led the Augsburg trading house from 1518. The Welsers were among the largest creditors of Charles V. By a contract of 27 March 1528 the crown gave them the right to conquer and govern Venezuela at their own cost. They had to found two towns and three forts within two years. Their governors marched inland looking for gold. Ambrosius Ehinger died of a poisoned arrow in 1533. In 1540 the Audiencia of Santo Domingo named Philipp von Hutten captain general. Bartholomäus's son, also named Bartholomäus, rode with him. In 1545 the Audiencia gave the governorship to a Spaniard, Juan de Carvajal. When Hutten and young Welser came back from the interior in April 1546, Carvajal seized them after a promise of safe passage, kept them in chains and had them killed. Wikipedia says they were beheaded^†. The crown's judge Juan Pérez de Tolosa sentenced Carvajal to death, and he was hanged (sources give 1546 and 1547). In 1546 the Council of the Indies withdrew Welser control of Venezuela, and the family let its rights lapse. Bartholomäus handed the firm to his sons in 1551. In the summer of 1614, days after Marx Welser died, the company collapsed under its debts. Matthäus Welser spent seven years in debtors' prison. Venezuela stayed Spanish until independence. The Welser family received nothing from the grant.