<strong>by Rod Hughes</strong>

The Episcopal Conference of Costa Rica’s Catholic Church sent illegally obtained funds to Panama to escape the eyes of the government financial watchdogs, revealed the daily <em>La Nación</em> Thursday, in yet another article in a series that surely will win prizes for investigative reporting. Each new revellation of the use of Pastoral Services bank accounts to gather investor deposits has come as a blow to the Church’s prestige.

In July of 2005, Sugef, the national equivalent of the SEC in the United States, notified the Episcopal Conference that they could not act as a stock brokerage firm and ordered the body of bishops to cease and desist from doing so. To avoid these restrictions, the paper revealed, fund administrators continued to accept investor funds and to make loans through a Panamanian firm. According to one investor, a medic named Dr. Hugo Howell, he was notified of the move to avoid Sugef scrutiny. But the attorney for fund accountant, Minor Rojas, denies that his client remembers sending any such communications.

On May 14 of this year, Sugef formally accuse the conference of bishops for their offshore investment activities. But at least three bishops have denied they knew anything about the movement of funds. Yet an accountant, Jorge Sánchez, who has had an account with Pastoral Services since the 1990s says the move never was kept a secret. Sánchez says he worked directly with the fund’s administrator, the late Jorge Torres. Sánchez denied to the paper that Torres had ever instructed him to keep mum about the fund’s activities lest the bishops found out.

Dr. Howell also concurs that he was never sworn to secrecy and added, "It’s strange to me that they’re saying these things… I always thought Torres was an impeccable person."

Among the investors are family members of Church hierarchy. The list of investors was omitted from a report by Episcopal Conference lawyer Carlos Vargas gave <em>La Nación</em> on April 15. The Panamanian branch of Pastoral Services is closely associated with the investment firm Grupo Sama in that country.