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A VILLALOBOS CASE ANALYSIS 
By Hank Guichelaar

As a group of Villalobos investors gets ready to meet Sunday, many have wondered: "Where is the money?" The investment firm, forced to shut down by the government, could have as much as one billion dollars in capital and assets. 

According to John Manners, Chairman of UCCR, the reason for this is plain and simple: "Although the majority of investors would like their principal returned or for their monthly interest payments to resume, all of the investors are painfully aware that if these monies would be located, the Costa Rican Government will attempt to freeze these assets as well, in an attempt to confiscate all the money and without any intent to return it to the rightful owners." 

Technically, unless he is finally charged and subsequently convicted, Enrique Villalobos is still the rightful "keeper" of these funds, loaned to him by investors. 

According to court documents in the possession of Global Studies Group, the small amount presently frozen will not be returned to investors in spite of the filed claims. A judge in the case has already confirmed this according to a communication from the Judicial. 

At the beginning of the week, I posted to some Internet discussion lists a request asking that investors who had filed complaints with the judiciary to withdraw them. 

The 600 or so persons who have filed claims had been entrapped by the prosecutor, these criminal complaints are just "roadblocks," because it is the only substantial foundation that the investigative agency has at this point. 

So far, a small number of people have contacted Jeanette Arias, assistant to the prosecutor, and submitted requests to withdraw their claims. It appears that the Prosecutors Office has outlined procedures to withdraw claims and it has faxed these in response to "Withdraw Requests". 

Mrs. Arias appeared to be very cooperative. 

The investor claims are in addition to "whatever" complaints the prosecutors investigating the case bring against Villalobos. And "whatever" is exactly the entire depth of the case. After almost seven months into this, there still are no formal charges against either Villalobos' brother, and many are beginning to question this entire "legal" process.

One of these is the former Justice Minister; Jose Miguel Villalobos. Mr. Villalobos will be featured as the guest speaker at a meeting organized by an investors group, UCCR, at the Aurola Hotel Holiday Inn in San Jose, this Sunday at 2PM.

An on-line publication yesterday reported about an unsubstantiated rumor in San José that Villalobos already had returned and is holed up in some hidden office dispensing cash and checks to those who supported him. It added: "The rumor appears to be without foundation, although some investors have gone in search of the secret office...", but it failed to identify these alleged people.

Enrique Villalobos decided to go into hiding after Oct. 14 when he closed up his Mall San Pedro office because he feared a second raid. He has sent several e-mail messages since. Because Enrique demonstrated that he is a flight risk, the government decided to place his brother Oswaldo in preventative detention where he remains. He was arrested on the spot when he appeared for a hearing at the court house the last week of November. 

There are still no legal justifications given for his continued incarceration. Osvaldo Villalobos' company Ofinter was investigated by SUGEF and there was no wrongdoing discovered. In an interview with a representative of Inside Costa Rica, Osvaldo said that he believes he is kept as bait, in order to entrap his brother. 

Had Enrique not fled, both probably would have been arrested and both would be at the San Sebastian jail.

The same on-line publication also finally reported what Hank Guichelaar of Longview, Texas and the Costa Rican Global Studies Group have been saying all along: "sources within the Costa Rican investigation report that no information or lists of Villalobos investors have been shared with other governments, including that of the United States. That means the U.S. Internal Revenue Service does not know who has been investing their funds offshore with Villalobos unless the tax collectors obtained the information from another source."

This "other source" could very well be the information supplied during the filing of claims.

A spokesperson of the Global Studies Group confirmed that an effort is underway to contact the claim filers, most of whom appear either Costa Rican or Hispanic, judging by the names on the list procured by the Global Studies Group, in addition to about 12.000 pages of court documents.