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Caja-Fischel
Case: Reiche Denies Any Deal; Fiscal's Home
Broken In
The Caja-Fischel case has heated up in the
past couple of weeks with the damming
statements by former president of the
Corporación Fischel, Walter Reiche Fischel,
against his co-accused, former Costa Rican
president, Rafael Ángel Calderón Fournier.
In the last week Reiche has broken his
silence and pointed the finger at the former
president, telling in open court how
us$850.000 was handed over to Calderón for
his part for approval of the us$39.5 million
dollar purchase of medical equipment by the
Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS)
or Caja.
Reiche, Calderón, the former president of
the CCSS, Eliseo Vargas García, and five
others are standing trial, accused of
corruption and embezzlemen, for receiving
monies from Instrumentarium Medko Medical, a
consortium in Finland who sold the CCSS
equipment brokered by the Corporación
Fischel.
Yesterday, a new twist was added to the
saga, as the house of the fiscal
(prosecutor), José Pablo Alvarado Cascante,
was broken into.
The thieves apparently only took Alvardo's
personal computer, which according to the
fiscal, contained information related to the
case. The fiscal told investigators that a
watch, a .22 calibre handgun and camera was
also taken from the residence in Dulce
Nombre, Coronado.
No one was home at the time of the break-in.
Alvarado is one of the Ministerio Público
fiscales that has been working on the case
since March 2007.
As the trial continues, Reiche has been
under severe attack by defence council for
the co-accused, particularly by José Miguel
Villalobos, lawyer for Calderón, who point
blank asked Reiche what motivated him to
give the statement against his client and if
there had been any deal or promises made by
the prosecution.
Reiche denied making any deals in exchange
of any advantage or benefit and that his
statements can be backed up by
documentation, clearly showing payments made
to Calderón for his role in the crime.
"I conspired to commit a fraud along with
former president Calderón", were words
spoken by Reiche during his last seven days
of testimony and questioning by both the
fiscales and the defence lawyers.
Lawyers for co-accused, former director of
the CCSS, Gerardo Bolaños, and former
manager of modernization for the CCSS, Juan
Carlos Sánchez, refused to question Reiche.
The Caja-Fischel case came to light when it
was discovered that the former president of
the CCSS, EliEliseo Vargas García, lived in
a luxury home in the upscale Santa Ana
residential development, Valle del Sol, and
that was bought and paid for by the
Corporación Fischel.
Vargas had been a legislator when the
Finnish deal was first proposed and then
concluded while he was president of the CCSS.
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