Costa Rica Blogs - Newsfeeds

by Rod Hughes

Convicted confidence man Arnoldo Rodríguez enjoyed his freedom as a fugitive for 25 years after a conviction in Boron, California, for defrauding a Salt Lake City, Utah, jeweler of $120,000. But Monday a Costa Rican judge ordered a year preventive detention on four local counts of–what else?–fraud.

The 69-year-old Costa Rican went over the wall at a minimum security federal prison on Dec. 6, 1982, not long after beginning his four-year sentence. The authorities in California apparently thought his fleeing the country was good riddance, because they did not exactly break their necks to apprehend Rodríguez. His presence in this country was an open secret among veteran journalists here and he was often sighted in Escazu.

Rodríguez is charged with having sold the same beach hotel at Naranjo de Paqueraq in Puntarneas province to two foreigners at the same time. Amy Sher alleges that she paid Rodriguez a $70,000 down payment and another $50,000 to “formalize her credit.” But Canadian Dean Paquette said he shelled out $25,000 to make a deal on the same hotel.

Another charge in which Rodriguez’s son is also implicated was the purchase of a luxury Mercedes Benz sedan for which the buyers issued a check on July 5, 2006, for $50,000 The next month, Costa Rican, U.S. and Grand Cayman banks notified the sellers that the documents the Rodriguezesused in the deal appeared false.

Termed by the U.S. Department of Justice in the early 1980s as “a notorious international swindler,” Rodríguez once was riding high in Costa Rica banking circles with his Grupo Proim, a financial combine including the Latin American Bank, which collapsed in 1977, losing millions for its investors. At the time, a Tico Times reporter, trying to pin down the personable, bland Rodriguez, asked directly, “But why did the bank fail?” and was answered with an airy explanation that “we borrowed short and loaned long.” No charges were ever filed in that failed venture.

The “ex-banker” was also implicated in a dubious business project with two U.S. fugitives named Randal Rudd and Vincent Carrano but Rudd was extradited and the latter fled the country. After that he dabbled in banking in the Caribbean before running afoul of banking laws there and then went on the the United States. He was finally sentenced to four years in California “country club” prison where he resided–briefly.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Costa Rica News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.