EscucharSAN JOSE - The operations involving bonds written on Venezuelan foreign debt, which provoked losses of some $55 million to the Banco Anglo Costarricense and resulted in the closing of that institution, have entered the trial stage in the Court of San José.
The proceedings mark the culmination of four years of complicated investigations and a complete judicial process in the largest financial scandal in the history of the country.
The accused in the embezzlement case are the ex manager Carlos Hernán Robles-Macaya, and seven ex directors: Carlos Trejos-Cadaval, Arturo Fallas-Zúñiga, Rónald Fernández-Pinto, Carlos Osborne-Escalante, Edwin Salazar-Arroyo, Mánfred Amrhein-Pinto and Carlos Manuel González-Lizano.
Also charged are Chilean brothers José Luis and Mariano López-Gómez, representatives of Ariana Trading and Finance (ATF), the intermediary in the deal, and Fernando Murillo-Marchini and Mauricio Guardia, who received an extraordinary extension of their cases.
The announcement made by the Department of Information and Public Relations, indicated that "soon there will be an audience for the offering of evidence and later a date will be set for litigation."
What is to be tried is the process by which the Venezuelan, as well as Costa Rican and Brazilian, bonds were acquired between 1992 and 1993, "as well as the price paid" by Banco Anglo in the purchase of its subsidiary Almacén de Valores Comerciales (AVC), "which the López brothers sold to the bank."
Precisely, the purchase of the Venezuelan government bonds was made through AVC of Panama, with money from Banco Anglo and through the intermediation of ATF.
The problem was that only AVC assumed the losses of $55 million which occurred after a fall in the value of the bonds in the market.
Of the ten accused, the only one who has faced a court is Robles Macaya, who was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzlement in the purchase of an electronic advertising screen.
The case was officially sent to trial by the Fourth Court of Instruction on December 22 and appealed by the defending attorneys in early 1998.
Later, in May, the lawyers went before judges Jeanette Villarreal, Gilberto Corella and Ligia Arias, of the Court of San José, to present the reasons for their opposition. Then responded the state attorneys, Carlos Cubillo and Miguel Ramírez, whose arguments were accepted.
For the Public prosecutor, Carlos Arias, the decision by the Court is a recognition of the enormous work done by the Attorney General and means that the efforts have born fruit, although the most important part of the process awaits, the trial.
"It is a very complicated case; I understand that the people's claims have waited a long time, but given the complexity of the issue, four years is a reasonable time," said Arias.
