Former President Calderón And Others To Be Formally Charged Today in the Caja-Fischel Scandal
Former president, Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990 - 1994); the former president and former director of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) - also known as the Caja, Eliseo Vargas and Gerardo Bolaños Alpízar; and the president of the Corporación Fischel, Walter Reiche Fischel, will be formally charged by the Fiscalía (prosecutor's office) for their part iin the Caja-Fischel scandal.

The date is set for 8:00am this morning, when the gorup will be visitng Ministerio Público to hear the charges against them based on the investigation that has been going for the last two years.

In the afternoon, the former manager of Modernización at the CCSS, Juan Carlos Sánchez Arguedas; former financial manager of Fischel, Olman Valverde Rojas and the former manager of O. Fischel R., Marvin Barrantes, will be doing the same.

The accused were given notice yesterday by the Fiscalía to make their appearance, according to lawyers for the group.

The seven are accused of dividing up a commission on a loan of us$39.5 million dollars by the government of Finland to the CCSS. The commission was paid by the Finnish company Instrumentarium Medko Medical that sold the equipment to the Fischel.

Today the group will be formally charged with their role in the illegal activity, including enriquecimiento ilícito (illegal enrichment).

The accused will hear today the verbal explanations by the proseuctor for what they are being charged following a long investigation. The prosecutor will also set dates for the court appearances to present the formal charges and then set a date for a trial.

The Caja-Fischel scandal borke out in April of 2004, where it was discovered that the then president of the CCSS, Eliseo Vargas, lived in a luxurious home that had been purchased by Fischel's financial manager, Olman Valverde.

During the investigation, the Ministerio Público was able to obtain access to bank accounts in Panama were the sum of us$9.1 million dollars, the alleged pay off, had been deposited and from which it was distributed individually to the accused, including funds to purchase the homes Vargas lived in.

The investigation also discovered bank accounts in the Bahamas, the United States and Costa Rica that was under the control of the accused and where pay off money was deposited.

The Fiscalía is satisfied with the work of the fraud section of the Organismo de Invesitigación Judicial (OIJ), which delved into the financial movements of the accused.

The investigator also found evidence of some us$520.000 in bank accounts held by former president Calderón and payments from there to some of the other accused.

The investigation also concluded that the purchase of the medical equipment by the CCSS was totally unnecessary and that the equipment never worked properly and for the most part went unused.