Villalobos Investors Push For Legal Action Against Costa Rican Government

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

06 February 2003

According to a report from the AM Costa Rica news service on Wednesday, former investors with Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho have been asked to stump up $100,000 in order to hire lawyer and former Justice Minister, Jose Miguel Villalobos - who is no relation to the fugitive financier - to fight their case against the government.

Enrique Villalobos operated a high interest investment scheme, offering creditors up to 3% per month. The Costa Rican government last year raided his operation and froze the bank accounts of Villalobos-related companies on the basis of money laundering suspicions and fraud allegations, in the process tying up some $1 billion of investor money.

However, despite the fact that he has been widely discredited as a fraudster, many investors believe that if they can persuade the government to stop pursuing the financier by launching criminal and civil actions against it, Mr Villalobos will return, and begin making interest payments to his clients again.

In a statement released at the weekend, the United Concerned Citizens & Residents group said (of Jose Villalobos):

'His aim is to pressure the government into dropping the case before any suit is actually launched. He said they (the government) know full well their case is full of holes and will never stand up in court.'

According to AM Costa Rica, some $50,000 of the $100,000 necessary to engage Mr Villalobos' services was pledged at an investors meeting on Sunday.

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