Illegal Gambling Money Alleged To Finance Costa Rica Political Party

Otto Guevara, leader of the Partido Movimiento Libertario (ML) and 2010 presidential candidate acknowledged last week receiving political donations from Olman Rimola, but denied knowing if the funds came from illegal gambling sources. On Wednesday the Ministerio Publico raided the ML offices and is actively investigating Guevara and others.
 

"This is a political stunt", said Guevara, leader of the Movimiento Libertario pollitical party, on Thursday, who in addition told the press that he has no problems in opening up his bank accounts.

The Wednesday raid has its roots with Rimola, a former Escazú mayoral candidate (www.olmanrimolaalcalde.com) , who was arrested the week earlier and linked the U.S. action against Absolute Poker having operations in Costa Rica.

Guevara, earlier this week said that he knew Rimola and that he operated a call centre, like many call centres operating in Costa Rica, but did not know of the links to the online poker gambling sites.

Absolute Poker, one of the most popular online gambling sites, was based in a newly built non-descript office building in Rohrmoser, two blocks from the home of former president Oscar Arias on one side and two from the Plaza Mayor on the other. A number of "call centres" and alleged online gambling sites operate in the immediate area.

The only identification on the building was the name Innovative Data Solutions (IDS), the building and company alleged to be owned by Rimola.

Absolute Poker is owned by Scott Tom, one of three men sought by Costa Rican and US judicial officials, and the subject of a manhunt inside and outside of Costa Rica, as the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Costa Rica's Ministerio Publico build a case for alleged links to illegal online gambling operations and fraud against players.

Absolute Poker is said to have defrauded financial institutions (and as such players) in their claims to obtain credit card processing. The investigation into the online sites was with the discovery of Scott Tom in 2007 carrying us$3 million dollars in cash aboard a private plane headed for Colombia.

The discovery was by accident, occurring when the plane had a minor accident during takeoff at San José's Juan Santamaria international airport. While investigating the accident, Costa Rican officials stumbled on Tom and the cash.

Investigators suspected Rimola of assisting Tom with money laundering.

On May 6 the Organismo de Investigacion Judicial (OIJ) raided the IDS building and the site of PokerStars, located in the Forum office complex in Santa Ana. The OIJ also searched Tom's private home in Escazú and the home of Rimola.

According to the Ministerio Publica, Rimola turned himself in a few days after the raid and was ordered to stay in the country and sign it at the court office every 15 days.

Back to Guevara.

Following the raid on the gambling site offices and the involvement of Rimola, the leader of the ML came out ahead of the story, admitting knowing Rimola and having accepted donations which is a matter of public record.

However, Guevara denied knowledge of Rimola's ties to the illegal gambling sites and ties to Tom.

But, the Ministerio Publico disagreed and began their investigation that resulted in the raids and are now seeking to lift banking secrecy against Guevara's and the Movimiento Libertario's bank accounts.

Involved in the investigation is also the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE) - elections tribunal - and the Unidad contra el Lavado de Dinero del OIJ (OIJ money laundering unit).

Joint raids focused on the ML San Pedro offices and the office of former ML campaign manager, Cristian Arguedas, in Lindora (Santa Ana) and the home of Carla Gomez, known as a financier.

Working closely with the Costa Rican authorities are US investigators.

The raids began Wednesday morning in time for the noon television news broadcasts. Guevara told the press at the time of the raids, "each candle holder has to hold its own candle".

As to Gomez, Guevara said that she will have to answer to questions of where the source of the funds, explaining that all the donations were handled through current accounts managed by Arguedas, who will also have to answer to the Gomez involvement.

"We in the party have no problem. We do not have a dog in this fight (loosely translated)", said Guevara, explaining that he received loans from Gomez to finance his expenses in 2009.

On the raid on party headquarters, Guevara said: "they probably looking for receipts of such contributions".

Guevara almost won the 2010 presidential elections, bringing the ML party the closest to the presidential chair during its history since he founded the party a decade earlier.

Otto Guevara is and founder of the Partido Movimiento Libertario, has served in the Costa Rican legislature from 1998-2006 and has been its candidate for president of Costa Rica in 2002, 2006, and 2010.

On election day in 2010, Guevara was involved in a religious controversy, as his girlfriend was seen on national television pocketing part of the host after receiving Eucharist at Catholic Mass.