by Rod Hughes
A manhunt is on by judicial detectives for fugitive Italian millionaire and accused con artist Matteo Quntavalle, a resident of and investor in Costa Rica. The flamboyant businessman was accused last April by 17 U.S. investors of cheating them with unauthorized deposit slips on a fictitious bank, according to Judicial Branch spokesman Fabian Barrantes.
An Interpol arrest warrant has been issued but local police fear he might have already escaped to Panama.
The plaintiffs have accused the Italian and five other persons of fraud, conspiracy and illegal financial intervention, according to the English-language weekly The Tico Times. When 30 judicial police raided Quintavalle’s homes, hotels and offices in the central Pacific town of Quepos and the western San Jose suburbs of Santa Ana and Escazú July 5, the millionaire was not to be found.
Quintavalle has many interests here including being deeply involved in the national soccer scene.
According to the arrest warrant quoted by the Spanish-language daily La Nacion, Quintavalle invited Florida investors to buy stock in a bearer share corporation named Inversiones Quintavalle Financial Institution. In exchange for their putting money in the company, they were allegedly offered high yield stock, the money to be dedicated to real estate projects in Quepos and in the active market at Tamarindo Beach on the north Pacific coast.
Fiscal (the judicial equivalent here of a proscuting attorney) Carlos Meléndez told La Nación that, unlike what Quintavalle and the others allegedly promised, Banco de Costa Rica did not back the projects. Moreover, neither does the Depository Pacific Bank exist in Costa Rica where the investments were allegedly held.
So far, the judicial investigators estimate that some $4.6 million is involved. The international apprehension order alleges that so far the investors have received nothing from La Vida Real Real Estate Partnership that investors say was offered as guaranteeing the deal.
Quintavalle has an order forbidding him to leave the country but this has been scant deterrant in the past for people determined to pass through this country’s porous borders by any means necessary.