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Friday, January 29th, 2016  |  USD: Buy 531.29 / Sell 543.92
20 years

Lawyer convicted of scamming seven US investors out of $626k gets 10 years

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July 9th, 2015 (InsideCostaRica.com) A Puntarenas trial court has sentenced attorney Arcelio Hernandez Mussio to the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on Tuesday after convicting the man of defrauding seven U.S. investors out of $626,000 USD.

 

According to prosecutors, Hernandez accepted a deposit of $626,000 from the investors in May 2010, whose aim was to purchase a hotel located in Samara, Guanacaste.

 

Instead, Hernandez distributed the funds to a number of his personal bank accounts and then declared his law firm bankrupt over a period of about one week, according to the prosecution.

 

In August 2014, Hernandez won a criminal defamation case against the newspaper Al Dia that inaccurately reported that Hernandez defrauded the investors by “posing” as an attorney.  Hernandez was, in fact an attorney at the time.  Judges ordered the newspaper to pay Hernandez ¢3 million in damages.

 

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  • prdatki

    He should be executed in public and all of his money and assets given to the investor. All politicians and clergy convicted of a felony should be executed.

    • Chris Thomas

      Kill one corrupt politician a month and this crap might stop

  • duke ster

    Is there any more information on this story? Did the investors get their money back? What amount of time will he be expected to spend behind bars with a 10 year sentence in Costa Rica? Is there “good time” in Cr? Will he lose his law license permanently as a result of his conviction? Will he actually do any time at all or will he be able to get out of this whole deal on a reversal?

    • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

      I will answer what I can: We don’t know what happened right now to the investors’ funds or if they were able to recover them (if you were one of the investors, please drop us a line at [email protected] )

      Early release from prison is quite common.

      He will lose his law license as a result of the conviction.

      He is free to appeal the verdict, though it is extremely likely he will wait in prison while a decision is made on any possible appeal.

      • Sheldon Haseltine

        No he won’t. The maximum the Colegeo can do is to suspend him for ten years.

  • duke ster

    Thanks for the fast reply Timothy–please keep us updated. It is very important for future investors , well, all of us, to know if there is any REAL justice in CR.

    • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

      Hopefully the investors at least received the $6,000 that the newspaper, Al Dia, had to pay this man.

  • duke ster

    The $6000 dollars he received for his lawsuit is most certainly in his pocket, safe and sound. Let’s see if these investors receive even a penny. Just like the pounds and POUNDS of precious stones the police confiscated from the home of the Gringo Billionaire whose wife was convicted of his murder over on the west coast down near the Whale Tail. Remember that case? Man those Costa Rican cops really won big time. Talk is that they engineered the whole murder/ theft to begin with. Maybe the wife was set up? I mean she stood to collect 1/2 of the husband’s fortune in a simple divorce, according to Costa Rican laws. Why would she take the chance on getting caught killing him when she stood in line for half in a simple divorce-and we all know how CR is heavily in favor of the woman winning it all. You can’t even yell at the old lady in this country or you stand the chance of your naked butt being thrown out on the street within an hour. I mean she could have called the cops and said
    “my husband just yelled at me” and she would have had possession of the home within the hour and had all the time she needed to go buy a big shovel and wheel barrow and sun glasses ( to protect against the brilliance) to load up all the Diamonds. They ( cops)had to resort to WEIGHING diamonds and Rubies and all manner of precious stones. CAN YOU IMAGINE having to WEIGH diamonds because they were so plentiful????? 100% the cops did the crime—100%— try to investigate this one and see how long you live.

  • duke ster

    I was out and about searching for a sign making shop when I found one on a main road in a nice area. As I waited for the signs to be made I asked about the fine gated and high walled home across the road. I was informed that it was owned by an old Gringo but that he died somehow and now the former milkman owned it and lived there. Seems the old wealthy Gringo was known as a loner with no family. So I half jokingly asked the sign maker/neighbor which part of the backyard he thought the old Gringo was buried in. I mean the story goes that the old Gringo wanted to return to the U.S.A. and so he GAVE the beautiful mansion with the expansive grounds to the local milkman? C’mon —-wake up! Who gives away his expensive, high dollar beautiful home? And to the milkman? This milkman was probably the only person to gain any confidence to the old Gringo and who alone was allowed inside the compound. Where Are the investigations in this country? I’ll bet if a few heavy guys went up to the door ( difficult because of the high walls) and got heavy with the new owner–the “milkman”, they might get some of the cut of the old Gringo’s wealth. If the milkman thought he was going to be investigated, the “heavy investigators” could keep a stealthy stakeout/ night vision watch -on the grounds and surprise the milkman when he was mid way through the digging up of the old, formerly rich, Gringo in order to get rid of the evidence. The heavy investigators just might become the new owners–what do you think? What would be needed would be some ex military contractor “spooks” who know how to operate like this. Actually it would be a fairly straight forward operation and a whole heck of alot easier than what some of you guys have been through on operations which yielded a whole lot less. Perhaps there is a great suspense/crime story in the making here. At the very least.

  • Chris Thomas

    Ok this whole justice thing is mirage, the cops, top legal officials and politicians will get the money, the only way to get justice in this case is for them to hire a hit man torture man for a few days until he gives up the money then dispose of him like garbage in the ocean, that is reality in Costa Rica folks.

  • Sheldon Haseltine

    The question is: Will he actually ever do time? Let us hope this is not just a sop or placebo to the international community which is now bitching loudly about pervasive Land fraud in the country. Is there a real will to clean up this dark shadow on CR’s investment climate? For my part I doubt it for the forces behind this trade are too well connected to give up this easy source of black income which is then spread around in the usual way. Forbes Magazine comments; “As far as protecting investors, the World Bank ranks Costa Rica near the bottom–number 164 out of 181 economies–alongside Iran, Senegal and Haiti.” By the way all is not doom and gloom as Armando Gonzalez Fonseca (family owns Century 21, Stewart Title etc) had to pay us $28,000 for falsely accusing us of fraud.

    • duke ster

      Sheldon, can you tell us more about your fascinating story? You must be a hero for doing such a video. How did you get the idea? Financing? Distribution etc? That is incredible information that Costa Rica is listed as wholesale scumbags,down on the list along with scalawags such as Iran, Senegal and Haiti. Why oh why didn’t I and so many others have this information about what lies in wait in Costa Rica when we all came down here with pockets full of money and wide-eyed dreams of the good life? So many scammers out there like that Fat Dutch Go Realty guy who lured so many to Atenas to buy homes built on top of the old filled in town dump.

      • Sheldon Haseltine

        Hero? No I am just defending what is ours (and paid for) and have been criminally sued for doing so. In addition to armed aggression and for criminal fraud. The real purpose was to block the real issue – that of the land which we still do not have a hearing set since the postponement in June, 2014. We came up with the idea of the video as there was a local news blackout – our squatters’ family own La Nacion and walk in prominent and connected circles so we have the owners of the largest realty and Title company involved in land scams. Their crime here sympathetic locals tell me is not that they are scamming but being caught In the act. The principal of Van Der Laat Jimenez, the largest construction Company in CR, Ricardo Jimenez Monealegre a co-plaintiff volunteered in court that he didn’t understand what all the fuss was about as he had acquired many such properties in the area in such a manner (using squatters) For the record we have several other properties in the area also squatted on so it is not too hard to assume who is responsible. Regarding the video, it distributed itself by word of mouth. The Spanish version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkLceCSRodI) has more than 17,000 hits whereas the English version (http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-767144) a mere 1,500. It was also picked up by a Miami news station.
        Now these “gentlemen” are loudly whining about their honor and dignity. To be fair I have had much more support from Ticos than Gingos who as often as not tell me I am rocking the boat. Go figure………for more on the story just google me. Thank you for asking.

  • Sheldon Haseltine
  • Arcelio Hernandez

    It is better to wait for a sentence to be final, before jumping to conclusions or making crazy speculations. In fact, the conviction was completely nullified by the appeals court.

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