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Exclusive
Report!
Villalobos
Freeze
MEETING WITH
MR. ESPINOSA REVEALS MANY DETAILS
Five
investors met with the prosecutor investigating Luis Enrique
Villalobos Camacho Thursday 21 Nov. 2002. The following is a
recount by a spokesman of that meeting.
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A large group of UCCR people and friends headed for a 1:00 PM appointment downtown on Thursday (Nov 21) to see the prosecutor on the
"Villalobos" case.
At the door of Mr. Mr. Espinoza Espinosa's office, only five members of the UCCR steering committee were permitted to go in to see him. Once inside, a 95-minute conversation took place with him.
Here is the basic categorical rundown of that meeting between he and the group.
CRIMES & ALLEGATIONS
In the interest of fairness I am not going to edit the prosecutors words. What was said was said. It could have varying degrees of truth. The purpose is to tell the whole summary of the story, and not one side of it. If I leave something out, it is because in my view it has little value to our
situation.
For the past 24 months the government was aware of Mr. Enrique
Villalobos' operations. Obviously it was due to the success of his business (amount of money coming and going). They had even tried to have agents pose as investors, but with no personal referrals,
Mr. Villalobos would not accept their loan offers.
Mr. Espinosa talked about the fact that the law requires you be regulated for the type of business that the government feels
Mr. Villalobos was operating. Now if that goes to trial (in respect to an
"illegal banking" thing) then Mr. Villalobos's lawyers will have a chance to present their side of the story.
Mr. Espinoza recognizes that this form of Illegal banking is not necessarily a
major crime according to Costa Rica law.
We then looked at the possibility of " fraud." Why fraud? Well, he says that according to the law here, if you receive money and do not have investments, then you are committing fraud. (We have to mull that over some.)
Mr. Espinosa stated that Mr. Villalobos does NOT have any personal assets besides
$5,000.00 in Costa Rica. He has been investigated around the world, and in every stock exchange there is;
Mr. Villalobos could not be found to own "stocks or
bonds". Nothing.
Mr. Villalobos has to own something more, for how could he
have run a multi-million dollar business for better than a
for 22 years, if he didn't?. What has happened is simple; Mr. Villalobos
has his assets well protected. He is not stupid and must have realized that some day something like this could happen.
There is also a very strong possibility that the paper trail he was looking for is the one that
Mr. Villalobos says that he has well protected and was not taken in the raid.
Now hear this part: Mr. Espinoza made the statement very clear that the IRS or Canadian, nor even the
Costa Rican tax authorities, are involved in the investigation.
Why? Simple. Who are you to investigate? They don't have the names of the people who are
lenders (investors), plain and simple. And even if they did, he stated, the
Costa Rican government does not have the manpower to open an asset investigation on each and every lender.
You cannot investigate one person. You either investigate however many thousands of investors there are, or you don't.
End of story.
One of the members of the steering committee even got down on her hands and knees and started crying and begging. She said her money was legitimate, along with another Italian lady who said she sold her house in
Italy and deposited that money with Mr. Villalobos. His answer? "I
don't care. It means nothing to this investigation. I can't investigate one and not the other."
So we parted on this "blind faith" assumption: the government assumes all your money was clean, and that is that.
Also talked about was the fact that the government does not know how many investors there are, or how much money is involved. Why is this? Well, we said that the range of investors could be
6,000 -10,000 or more. If the government knew how many, they
would have in fact an exact number, and not be talking about a 4,000-person range of difference.
The number 6289 was from a late-90's document.
At one point, Mr. Espinoza asked how much total money the UCCR represented.
We said we don't know. Then he said, "Well, take a guess."
"We think various millions of dollars", was our
answer. He was shocked! And this even though the government has estimated that
Mr. Villalobos has received loans of probably $600 million. Now who ever said
"one billion," had better go back and re-do some of their thinking. How can we be sure this is the "estimate of the government? Well, they have 6 million frozen, and 1% of 600 million is, $6,000,000.00.
There was a gentleman in his office some time ago that alone has six million dollars invested
with Mr. Villalobos.
Mr. Espinosa agreed that a civil court under the guide of SUGEF
(The government agency that regulates financial institutions) would have to decide how the money is
divided when that stage of the case is there.
Why SUGEF? The prosecutor's office only has two auditors. So it would make more sense to hand the financial aspects of the case to a more
"objective body" were the words of Mr. Espinoza. And since SUGEF has many, many auditors, it would be the best
for all involved.
Mr. Villalobos's own private auditors, incidentally, will have
the opportunity to be present when the financial analysis is going on.
Also of interest, Mr. Villalobos has "the top two lawyers in the country working on his case"
according to Mr. Espinoza.
SOME VARIED ITEMS STATED BY MR. ESPINOZA
1. They froze no personal assets of Mr. Villalobos
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2. They did freeze assets associated with businesses that were related in some manner to
Mr. Villalobos.
3. Mr. Villalobos is not a stockholder or member of the board of any of the companies they froze.
4. It is estimated that Mr. Villalobos owns at least 204 companies, even if it is only on paper, but that his name or any other Villalobos name does not appear on the paperwork.
5. They only have six million dollars "frozen."
6. Only in Costa Rica is there a freeze on the accounts.
7. They have not been able to detect bank accounts with money outside of Costa Rica.
8. Mr. Espinoza has no idea where Mr. Villalobos could have
accounts.
9. There have been 400+ liens flied against the frozen money
already.
Mr. Espinoza made it clear that by law he was very limited in what he can or cannot say. Referring to the investigation, it is an
"ongoing circus." He can offer no legal advice, or other words of encouragement.
His take on this is pretty simple; "I am just here doing my job,"
PREMATURE WITH LAWSUITS
"At this point and time it is pretty premature to sue Mr. Villalobos, or anyone for that matter, because no
charges have been filed. That does not mean they never
will." He also said the government has set up an office for any one interested in filing a lien on the money frozen.
"If people decide to file, it's their business. I do not care, nor will I make any more money if they do or not."
"It's a personal decision. You don't need a high priced lawyer. You do have to make copies of your documents and certify them.
He did say that no matter what case he brings against Mr. Villalobos, then
Mr. Villalobos could defend himself and it will be up to a judge. But for the time being, they are still investigating. He concluded that there is no first-come first-to-get-paid law in effect. At the end of all this
they will divide the cash evenly.
According to Mr. Espinoza, it's ridiculous to be hiding from the tax people from your country. He gave me the name and phone number and told me that any gringo who wants to verify can call the IRS person in charge of Central America (based in Mexico). He stated that
"yes," they had looked at the evidence he had, and to them it was not important. In other words, they see that they could never make a case against any citizen of North America with the papers they have.
Anything they have centers around corporate documents, not personal files. So that is that.
He did not talk about money laundering or drug trafficking to us. I don't know if its because its against the law to do so, or that they just are not even looking into that. He never mentioned it as the motive for the raid. It's clearly focused on fraud and illegal banking now.
THE FREEZE
Mr. Espinoza said the freeze is not up to him; it is up to a judge if it continues or ends. It is now
out of the hands of the prosecutor. If it ends or continues, the prosecutor says that if
Mr. Villalobos wanted to pay us, he could set up shop in another country. So
"Mr. Villalobos is hiding behind the freeze as an excuse not to
pay", says Mr. Espinoza.
CONCLUSION
We of the UCCR conclude, doing the "gut feeling" thing from our meeting, feel that the government does not have a solid case on any grounds that
Mr. Espinoza would let on about. He is a "young man, with limited funds to work with, and virtually no staff to help him."
Mr. Espinosa stated that the case was still very "green." We could be wrong in some of this, because he cannot perhaps reveal certain aspects of his case. But we feel it is totally possible for this matter to be resolved by applying the right pressure. The SUGEF is not that big a problem, and the judge could dismiss the fraud thing as something that
Mr. Villalobos and his investor's need to work out between themselves.
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Meeting cancelled
The UCCR
has cancelled a meeting that had been scheduled for Sunday
24th where investors
could discuss the case. A member of the board said the meeting
was put off because there was not enough new material to
discuss.
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