FBI Mum in Pascall Money Laundering Case

"I'm sorry. I'm not authorized to comment on an ongoing investigation."

This was the response of an FBI agent to all questions in the money laundering hearing against Limón soccer club owner Carlos Howden Pascall this week. The refusal caught prosecutors by surprise because the investigator's testimony was one of the pivotal points of the case.

Not even an inquiry by the judge would shake the agent's adherence to protocol. So, not even questions by the defense brought a response from the U.S. agent.

If he had been an agent for Costa Rica's OIJ, he, of course, would have answered readily and prosecutors and judges were caught by surprise. But under the Napoleonic Code followed in local jurisprudence, judge, detectives and prosecution all belong to the same organization.

In the more adversarial English common law of the United States, however, this refusal to testify to a foreign court is, of course, logical. In fact, U.S. media people are accustomed to this kind of answer, frustrating as it is.

Pascall is accused of laundering money illegally earned by his half-brother, Rony Arnoldo Morrison. Morrison is alleged to have transfered the money to Pascall's bank accounts here here to make certain the U.S. courts could not confiscate it.

Local Prosecutor Luis Carlos Castro protested that the case against Morrison and Pascall is no longer an "ongoing investigation." Morrison was sentenced by a New York court to 10 years in prison two weeks ago for his illegal activities in the U.S.

Prosecutors here charge that Morrison transferred investment bonds to Pascall who in turn bought a large number of vehicles, motorcycles, boats lands and houses with the money.

Defense attorney Juan Jose Picado responded that U.S. banking laws are so tight that such money laundering would be impossible. Pascall himself declined to make a statement.

The prosecutors wasted no words in laying out their case. "Between 1996 and 2004, Rony Arnoldo Morrison led a criminal organization in the U.S.", read the indictment, "dedicated to murder for hire, aggression, kidnapping, arson, robbery, extortion, contraband and tax evasion..."

Morrison owned a cigarette vending business on a tribal reservation in the U.S. A New York district attorney began investigation of Morrison early in the century, resulting in his conviction.

Due to a ruling by the Constitutional Court (Sala IV), the news media may record the hearings and trial.

By Rod Hughes, Fijatevos.com