The Tico Times Online Daily Page

Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, August 26, 2003

HELP! Jaguars, such as this cub, are at risk of extinction in Costa Rica.
TT/ Julio Lainez

Genesis Documents Opened by Judge
More than three months after the founder of a defunct high-interest investment fund was arrested here on fraud charges, judges yesterday officially began the investigation by opening documents confiscated during the May 6 raid.
(Click for more)

155 Species in Danger
of Extinction in C.R.
Some 155 species of plants and animals -- including exotic birds, large felines, turtles and plants that are essential to several food chains -- are in danger of extinction in Costa Rica, a country with one of the greatest biodiversities in the Americas.
(Click for more)

Costa Rica to Host Banana Summit
Costa Rica's National Banana Corporation and the Ministry of Foreign Trade announced yesterday that Costa Rica will host an international summit of banana producers Nov. 28 to unify the countries' position regarding changes to the European Union's banana importing policy beginning in 2006.
(Click for more)

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Genesis Documents Opened by Judge
By Tim Rogers
trogers@ticotimes.net

More than three months after the founder of a defunct high-interest investment fund was arrested here on fraud charges, judges yesterday officially began the investigation by opening documents confiscated during the May 6 raid.

According to a court document obtained by The Tico Times, penal Judge Roy Badilla yesterday began the task of sorting through documents pertaining to the Genesis Fund. The documents were confiscated by authorities during the raid of Fund founder John Sherman Lipton's residence at luxury Tango Mar Hotel at the southern Nicoya beach town of Playa Tambor. Lipton, who was accused of fraud by former Genesis investor George Denison Sprague, was released from jail on conditional freedom shortly after his arrest (TT, May 16).

In a letter to The Tico Times May 30, Lipton said he has been instructed by his lawyers not to discuss the case, but maintained his innocence and claimed that similar allegations against him in Hong Kong and Ireland have fallen flat.

The Genesis Fund, which supposedly made its money speculating on foreign currencies, was one of five unregulated high-yield offering featured in a series of Tico Times articles a year ago (TT, July 26; Aug. 2). Since then, all five -- Savings Unlimited, The Villalobos Brothers, The Genesis Fund, Costa Rica Green and the Vault -- have folded or been forced closed by Costa Rican authorities.

San José law firm Araya, Gutiérrez & Asociados, which claims to represent the claims of six Genesis clients for a sum total of $1.6 million, said there is still no proof that Lipton handled a $100 million fund, as he reportedly told his investors. Lawyer Gonzalo Gutiérrez told The Tico Times that no money has been found, and he fears "the investigation is going to go the same way as that of the Villalobos and Savings Unlimited."

The Genesis Fund, which contained an unknown amount of money and open currency contracts, was frozen in May 2002 due to trading irregularities by the Commodity Trading Management Group, the Fund's financial management group that is supposedly registered in the South Pacific island of Vanuatu. Genesis was not authorized to operate in Costa Rica, but promoted itself here and lured an unknown number of investors here (TT, Nov. 1).

Genesis, registered in the on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis as the "Nevis American Trust Company," asked potential investors to commit a minimum of $100,000 into three, five, or 10-year "commitment plans," during which time "share redemptions are not allowed." Investors where asked to wire money to a Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation account held in the name of a company that does not appear on any Hong Kong registry.

At least one promoter of The Genesis Fund and one investor have already been found guilty of tax evasion in the United States.

California native Edward Lashlee, who admitted in court that he received and handled the transfer of approximately $24 million of Genesis investor funds, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion charges in U.S. District Court of Los Angeles last March, according to court press release. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Former Genesis investor Arnold Mitchell of San Diego was sentenced to eight months in prison last January for pleading guilty to using Genesis accounts to conceal $3.7 million from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), according to the release.

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155 Species in Danger of Extinction in C.R.

NO LAUGHING MATTER: Tapir in Costa Rica
TT/ Julio Lainez

Some 155 species of plants and animals -- including exotic birds, large felines, turtles and plants that are essential to several food chains -- are in danger of extinction in Costa Rica, a country with one of the greatest biodiversities in the Americas.

According to the "Red List of Threatened Species" complied by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Costa Rica is second to Panama for Central American nations with most species at risk of extinction.

Among the animal species identified as being most at risk are the jaguar, the tapir, the harpy eagle, the red and green macaws, the tití monkey, the sparrow hawk and the baula turtle.

Environment Minister Carlos Rodríguez acknowledged the situation, but reportedly said the number is "low" considering that Costa Rica has 13,430 identified species of flora and fauna. He added that it is important for the state to purchase land designated as national parks and to complete other conservation projects such as the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, stress the importance of adopting urgent measures to stop deforestation and prohibit hunting.

Luis Diego Marín, director of the environmentalist group APREFLOFLAS, charged that the Environment Ministry releases the same chart of endangered animals every year, giving the impression that the situation is stable. In reality, he alleged, there is a constant reduction in the population of endangered animals that is not being accurately represented by the government.

APREFLOFLAS has launched an educational campaign to try to teach Ticos not to have wild animals as house pets.

"Four out of 10 families have wild animals as pets," Marín said. "This is a practice that is illegal but common."

Rosa Bustillo, director of the Talamanca-Caribbean Biological Corridor, stressed the importance of preserving biological corridors to save many of the endangered species, in particular large felines.
She explained that the state does not provide enough funds to preserve biological corridors, with most of the money coming from international donations.
-AFP

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Costa Rica to Host Banana Summit

BANANAS: worker in Guapiles loads bananas
onto truck
TT/ AFP

Costa Rica's National Banana Corporation and the Ministry of Foreign Trade announced yesterday that Costa Rica will host an international summit of banana producers Nov. 28 to unify the countries' position regarding changes to the European Union's banana importing policy beginning in 2006.

The EU's current banana-importing policy is based on preferential quotas given to former European colonies. The new policy, scheduled to go into effect the Jan. 1, 2006, would eliminate the quota system and would be based on tariffs.

Costa Rican banana-producers met yesterday in San José to discuss the new EU policy and to call for an international summit.

"We are here to study what the new policy is exactly and to see how it would benefit us as a country," said Martín Zúñiga of the National Banana Corporation.

Zúñiga said the idea for the summit is to create alliances among the large Latin American banana-producing nations and to discuss the new policy. If the new system does not appear beneficial, he said, the banana-producing nations will have a bloc to negotiate a new policy with the EU.

The summit is expected to draw leaders of banana unions and representatives of Foreign Trade Ministries from eight to 10 countries, according to organizers.

Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama are the largest banana-producers in Latin America, supplying more than 10% of the bananas consumed by EU countries.
-AFP

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