FBI Asked To Investigate
Re-Insurer Brokers in
Costa Rica
The U.S. Federal Bureau
of Investigations (FBI)
has been reported to
have begun an
investigation looking
into the re-insurance
brokers operating in
Costa Rica.
The investigation was
confirmed by the
president of the
Instituto Nacional de
Seguros (INS), Guillermo
Constenla, who assures
that the inquiries
includes financial
information on several
re-insurers.
The involvement of the
FBI comes after the
daily Spanish language
newspaper La Nación
broke the story of
payments by the British
re-insurer PWS to former
INS president, Cristóbal
Zawadski and others,
including former Costa
Rican president, Miguel
Angel Rodríguez
(1998-2002).
Companies tied to
Rodríguez are also being
investigated for
receiving payments from
Mexican re-insurer, Guy
Carpenter-Reinmex.
The investigation will
look into payments of
us$706.135 by PWS and
us$47.465 by Guy
Carpenter to the
Panamian corporation
Denisse S.A in November
2001, who is owned by a
Costa Rican corporation
where Rodríguez is the
major shareholder.
Following the reports,
Constenla personally
took to the task of
heading an investigation
which is required by
law.
Constenla said that his
investigation led to the
asking the United States
Justice Department to
intervene, explaining
that there are a number
of other companies
involved in addition to
PWS and Guy Carpenter
and the FBI
investigation is to
include every company
that has insurance
negotiations in Costa
Rica.
Guy Carpenter has its
headquarters in the U.S.
On Thursday, Zawadski
presented himself to the
Ministerio Público for
questioning and was held
for several hours in the
court jail cells of the
OIJ after being accused
of fraud and later
released by a judge on
the condition that he
not leave the country.
Yesterday (Friday),
former president
Rodríguez appeared
before the Ministerio
Público to answer
questions of the
prosecutors, insisting
that he has no relation
to Denisse or anything
to do with money paid by
the re-insurers,
notwithstanding definite
proof of a cheque for
us$30.000 paid by
Denisse to Lorena Clare,
the wife of the former
president.
The money trail also
shows that Denisse paid
out us$13.000 to pay
down a credit card held
by Rodríguez, after
making purchases in
exclusive shops and
hotels in places like
Madrid, Tokyo, Miami and
New York. |
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