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NACIÓN |
Villalobos case
hits $88 Million
•
The
amount is larger that the loss of the Banco
Anglo closing
Story
translated from the La
Nacion
An accounting of
about 10% of the investors of the Brothers
investment house reveal a debt to investors of
$88 Millions just to this small group of 636
investors.
This amount, revealed in a judicial report and
which La Nacion had access to, is 1.7 times
larger than the loss of the Banco Anglo and it
equals 80% of the holdings of the country's
largest bank, Banco Nacional, which has no
relationship to the case.
The list of investors is 6.289, however the
prosecutor's office can only find records of
10% of the that, based on the raid of July
4th.
The registered transactions were made between
Sept. 1998 and this year and generated a
interest of 3% on the capital in dollars.
If the investor opted to capitalize his
interest, the Brothers than would pay only
2.8% compounded. This additional attraction
made for 40% of the investors (245) decide to
reinvest their interest, information found in
the judicial report.
Ofinter, the operation known as the Brothers
was run by the Costarican Brothers Luis
Enrique and Osvaldo Villalonos and was
operated under strict rules and
confidentiality on the ingress of funds, the
confiscated documents revealed.
Even though the Villalobos operated a money
exchange house regulated by the Superintendent
of Bank (SUGEF), the investment operations
were not.
The prosecutor's office for Drug Trafficking
intervened on July 4th and froze $7 million
dollars found in bank accounts, based on a
request by the Canadian authorities suspecting
money laundering.
Osvaldo was detained on Wednesday and the
whereabouts of Enrique are not known, who was
a victim of an attempted murder in 1995. In
that case he took the opportunity to speak
about his like and business with La Nacion.
The minimum investment required by the
Villalobos was $10.000, which was paid paid by
cash, check or bank wire transfers.
In return, the Villalobos handed the investors
a dateless check made out on a personal bank
account in the name of Enrique.
The prosecutor seized copies of various checks
'the guarantee' issued by Enrique Villalobos
on an account with the Banco Nacional.
The account, according to OIJ, has no activity
since 1997 and with a balance of less than
$5.000, "insufficient to serve as a
proper guarantee", added the report.
Up to the moment there are 62 companies
related to the Villalobos brothers operations.
An investigation by the OIJ department of
Drugs followed the trail of the bank accounts
used by the companies and found 105, of which
41 were foreigner and the rest Costarican.
Not anyone could invest in the Brothers, as
you had to have been recommended in writing by
trusted clients or from a direct authorization
from the exchange house managers.
The employees of the firm had clear
instructions to protect the identity of the
clients and use extreme caution in leaving
telephone messages related to the investment.
The instructions included comments like:
" Ideally, the recommendatin does not
indicate that our clients knows well the
prospect (new client). The 'rule' we impose is
that he should be knows pretty well to become
our partner in business, or to trust him well
with his own money." Various phrases are
repeated in the "manual", like
"never confirm that someone is a
beneficiary by telephone".
Boasted a
relationship with the U.S.
In an
interview with La Nacion days after an attempt
to murder him in May of 1995, Enrique
Villalobos claimed to be a friend of the U.S.
embassy.
"I have an excellent rapport with the
U.S. embassy. The helicopter you photographed
belong to the United States government",
he assured.
"They want that my helicopters give some
kind of service to the Drugs and Enforcement
Agency (DEA). We are discussing it", he
added.
The U.S. embassy denied, in 1995, that there
existed any contractural agreements for the
services of Agroservicios Helicopteros de
Costa Rica - owend by the Villalobos.
From that answer it was unable to tell is
there could have been some type of
negotiations of other companies owned by the
Villalobos or those owned personally.
Late yesterday La Nacion tried to obtain,
again, the embassy's version of the events.
The indicated they would review the files>
Marta Bosshart, the press agent, referred to
the case of the Villalobos dealings as a
"a case for the Costarica
authorities".
The 1995 story also offered a view of his
life. Here's an extract of his
'autobiography'.
"During the 60's I studies in the
Military acadamies of Nicaragua and Guatemala.
I worked in Coto 47, a hangar of the
company Servicios
Aerofumigación por Helicóptero Limitada.
" I was sent by the company for three
years to study aviation mechanics in the
United States. After the company closed, I
moved to Nicaragua in look for work
opportunities in the the helicopter field.
There I became a pilot.
" I obtained a personal permit from
president Anastasio Somoza to crop spray by
helicopter in that country. When the
Sandinistas took power, my goods were seized
and I had to return to Costa Rica in 1979.
With the help of the U.S. Embassy I was able
to recover some helicopters and I started
working to crop spray cotton, and other
products of the area" of Coto.
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