by Rod Hughes

The Catholic Church’s Episcopal Conference has been accused of shady financial dealings by the financial watchdog agency, Sugef. Sugef general superintendent Oscar Rodríguez told the courts that his agency’s investigation has turned up evidence of “illegal financial intermediation,” the daily La Nación reported Thursday. The conference consists of eight Costa Rican bishops.

The 292-page Sugef report, based on several weeks of investigation, turned up evidence of violations of the Central Bank code that could entail, if conviction follows, penalties of three to six years in prison. However, it is unlikely that any cleric will go to jail. The Church does not choose its bishops on the grounds of their financial acuity and the conference denies any knowledge of illegal management of Church funds. (A good example of this was the plight of the Vatican Bank after the 1982, $35 billion collapse of Banco Ambrosiano in Italy, a near-disaster that had the Vatican scrambling for liquidity. The Vatican Bank is administered by the College of Cardinals.)

The violation of the code’s article 157 occurs, reported La Nacion, “when persons or organizations, without permission or controls of public financial authorites, acquire money from the public … with the aim of (selling) stocks or credit in some form.” In other words, the accusation is that they were acting like stock brokers without authorization of authorities. The Conference said in a press release that it is the victim, instead, of fraud.

In December, 2004, Sugef warned the Esiscopal Conference to stop acting as financial intermediaries. But on April 11 of this year, a La Nación investigative report revealed that bank accounts of the Conference’s Pastoral Services continued to receive funds from local and foreign investors, destined for the Panamanian investment house Grupo Sama S.A. The Conference owns 20% of Sama stock. The newspaper’s probing also revealed that money from Giovanni Bondaz had passed through the account. Bondaz is under investiagion by Italian authorities.

The case is complicated because the Pastoral Services administrator, Jorge Torres, died in June of last year. So he is unable to testify to why part of the funds he lent were to Anna Moscarelli, a Swiss businesswoman who, in the 1990s, managed funds for a high Mafia figures. Moscarelli’s company here administered three Costa Rican hotels and took out a loan for $3 million with Sama. But the flow of money from investors continued long after the Sugef warning, a Sugef investigation between April 21 and 30 this year discovered. Between March, 2005, and August of 2007, 168 deposits were made in the bank account.

One result is inevitable: it will take years before this cat’s toy of tangled financial dealings is finally sorted out and wound up in a neat verdict.

by Rod Hughes

Look out, soccer clubs! Costa Rican entrepenuer and the Liberia First Division club’s owner, Nario Sotela,has his checkbook out and is shopping for players long before the final championship match. And his specific target seems to be Alajuela.

He has just signed Minor Díaz of the Cartago club (13 goals in the 2007-8 season) and recently purchased the services of Luis Marín, 33, who comes off two seasons with the Maccabi Netanya club in Israel. He is awaiting arrival of French player Michel Gafau, a teammate of Jacques Remy in Strasbourg. But Sotela is also seeking the likes of Victor “Mambo” Núñez, Harold Wallace and Pablo Salazar, all of Alajuela. He told the daily La Nación that if Saprissa’s front office doesn’t want to renew the contracts of their veterans, he would gladly take them off their hands, as well.

He also let slip that he might contract Colombian head coach Carlos Restrepo recently fired by Heredia. It is obvious that he is out for veterans of all kinds and wants experience. None of the names he bandies about are novices. All this public shopping benefits players who have records and can demand a higher salary for contract renewals. Careful, Sotela the raider is out there!

Sportswriter Trashes Stadium

La Nación sportswriter José Luis Rodríguez reacted as if ST. Center in Aserrí, scene of Brujas’s recent triumph over University of Costa Rica, were a personal insult.He wrote Thursday that the stadium looks more like a small town park where kids play pick-up matches than a First Division stadium. Now, remember that Brujas has no really permanent home but plays many of its “home” matches there. Escazú is the franchise’s home but real estate prices there are sky high and the slope on which most of the town is built is hardly apt for a big stadium and its attendent parking lot.

Granted, the press box and the first class seats project nearly out on the pitch. And ST Center’s sidelines are perilously close to the cement walls. And there’s a lack of seating for a club that could conceivibly play in a championship match this year. They have played in the National Stadium in La Sabana Park but that will shortly be torn down to make way for the new 35,000-capacity, $72 million stadium financed by China. So the club is not likely to please critics like Rodríguez. Besides, Brujas was, previous to its franchise move to Escazú, the Guanacaste club based in the provincial town of Nicoya. Their old stadium was a mess and one year a section of the splintery wooden stands collapsed.

As we mentioned in a recent blog, the Brujas nomadic way of life has its upside. “Away” matches hold no terrors when you have no real home.

by Rod Hughes

Brujas of Escazú easily rolled over the University of Costa Rica side on its way to the semifinals of the Torneo del Verano, which is the 2008 half of the 2007-8 season. Brujas has no home pitch, since Escazú has no appropriate stadium, so all their matches are “away” and they were playing in Aserrí, a town south of San José for this match. Perhaps this was their advantage Wednesday for a 1-0 victory to follow up on their 3-2 win Sunday in the two-match elimination.

Earlier this year, UCR has looked extremely weak and Brujas had no problem holding them. But Alejandro Sequiera was not satisfied with a pasing grade as the fed the ball to Evance Benwell for the goal at minute 71. Earlier, Brazilian Ronnio Martins had directed a blistering shot at the UCR goal, stopped in a fine play by Argentinian goalie Osvaldo Quesada. So Brujas slipped past easily and is set for a two-match series with the faltering Saprissa, beginning Sunday.

Much has been written about the collapse of Saprissa this year, including by this reporter, so suffice it to say that Brujas looks like a strong adversary. Saprissa’s season beginning nine-match winning streak was capped by a losing streak and dropping of the CONCACAF regional championship to Pachuca of Mexico, plus the loss of a commanding lead in the First Division overall point standings to Alajuela. (The big purple “S” also won the opening half of the season.)

Perez Zeledon Dumps Heredia, 2-1

As this is written, Heredia fans are calling for the head of their club president Achille Alí upon seeing their club eliminated by a surprisingly strong Perez Zeledon. The warriors from the southern zone clearly out-played the much older club, Heredia, on its own pitch. As La Nación sportswriter Rodrigo Calvo noted, this hardly should have come as a surprise, since this is the third time P-Z has eliminated Heredia from the finals. Heredia was dumped from the opening tourney in 2004 and in a closely fought 2006 tourney Heredia was leading going into the second match 3-0 only to be trounced 4-1 in the second and to finally lose the penalty shootout 7-6.

This time, Heredia’s Carlos Angulo opened scoring at minute 39 with a free kick. Freddy Fernandez tied it up early in the second half on a pass from Luis Stewart Perez. Marco Herendez sealed it for P-Z at minute 70 with an assist from Tirso Guio who has been the backbone of the P-Z attack. (We note that Heredia coach Paulo César Wanchope is not under fire. Not only did he take over only lately, but he is an international soccer idol, Heredia’s favorite son.)