by Rod Hughes

Osvaldo Villalobos yesterday was found guilty of fraud and illegal financial intervention and faces up to 18 years in prison if the verdict is not overturned by the appeal his lawyers vow to file. Villalobos was involved in a financial operation known as “The Brothers” based in San Jose in which hundreds of investors sank hundreds of million dollars in order to earn up to 3% per month.
Villalobos’s brother, Luis Enrique, is at large and INTERPOL has an alert for his capture.
Osvaldo was acquitted of money laundering charges because the judges felt the prosecution had not made a solid case that he knew that some of the money accepted by the Brothers was allegedly from drug trafficking.
The case is one of the highest profile criminal prosecutions in recent years, due to the total amount of money involved–estimates run as high as $800 million–and the number of investors over the 20 years the Brothers took in money. The conviction clears the way to return millions of dollars to more than 100 investors who filed civil suits to recover their principal. However, the whereabouts of that money are as elusive as those of the fugitive Luis Enrique Villalobos.
The investors themselves are divided between Villalobos loyalists who depict Luis Enrique as a religious man good as his word, and those who simply want to recoup their investment.
A detailed history of the Villalobos case will appear tomorrow (May 18) in the English-language weekly The Tico Times.