{"id":2417,"date":"2016-04-08T10:18:04","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T10:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armando.info\/?p=2417"},"modified":"2016-04-08T10:18:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-08T10:18:04","slug":"gonzalo-tirado-a-plan-to-hide-the-money-earned-as-a-banker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/gonzalo-tirado-a-plan-to-hide-the-money-earned-as-a-banker\/","title":{"rendered":"Gonzalo Tirado \u2014 A Plan to Hide the Money Earned as a Banker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tirado \r\nsaid he was a victim of <I>chavism<\/I>. He hurriedly fled from Venezuela. He \r\nexpressed his depression in several letters addressed to family and friends, who \r\nfearing a suicide, called the authorities in May 2014 to warn of his \r\ndisappearance. The Doral police found him at the Wintage hotel in the city of \r\nMiramar, Florida. Without a doubt, a life full of scandals and legal \r\ncomplications.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According \r\nto communications and documents sent to Mossack Fonseca (MF) to become a client \r\nof the law firm, Tirado stated that his purpose was to create a \"private \r\norganization in Panama to protect his inheritance\" (the Caminos del Viento \r\nFoundation). At the same time, in a defense document prepared in 2010 by the \r\nVenezuelan lawyer Gonzalo Himiob with the purpose of demonstrating to MF that he \r\nwas an honest man, he affirms that the charges against him in Venezuela were the \r\nresult of a political persecution, and he described himself as \"victim of \r\n<I>chavism<\/I>.\"<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">An Aggressive Competitor<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those \r\nwho knew him, though, say that \"he was aggressive in business.\" He managed to \r\nhave 10 thousand clients with high financial resources, eager for high returns \r\nin times of exchange control while he was a Stanford consultant, extremely \r\ncomfortable and safe in the elegant office faced with green marble located in \r\nthe San Ignacio Shopping Center in Chacao, Caracas.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\"He \r\nwas bold in business. He liked high-quality and top-brand things. He had a very \r\nostentatious life,\" recalls a source that had a work and personal relationship \r\nwith Tirado.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even \r\nMF knew that his reputation was strongly questioned. The law firm hesitated to \r\naccept him as a client because of Tirado's lawsuit against his former mentor, \r\nRobert Allen Stanford \u2014sentenced in 2012 to 110 years in prison for several \r\nfraud crimes related to a pyramid scheme of over 7,000 million dollars through \r\nhis bank, Stanford Bank\u2014 but in the end, it was J\u00fcrgen Mossack himself, one of \r\nthe two partners of the Panamanian firm, who gave the green \r\nlight.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"469\" height=\"604\" src=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PP-14.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52090\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He \r\nhad his home in El Hatillo, one of the most beautiful and elegant areas in \r\nCaracas, as indicated in his voting center. His annual salary of 3 million \r\ndollars allowed him to have that life, according to the consulted source, a \r\nperson who preferred to remain unknown. He married and divorced twice and had \r\nfour children. He currently lives in the United States with her third love \r\npartner, whom he met when she was married to one of his best \r\nfriends.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Doubtful Legality<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After \r\nworking for 14 years at Stanford Bank and having a close and friendly \r\nrelationship with Allen Stanford, as he said to the Venezuelan media, he was \r\nfired in 2006. He sued the bank for moral damages and filed a labor claim for 18 \r\nmillion bolivars. He accused part of the Board of having spied on him for three \r\nyears. According to sources who witnessed the diatribe, Tirado meeting with the \r\nthen superintendent of the national tax office of Venezuela, Jos\u00e9 Gregorio \r\nVielma Mora, to assure him that he was not involved in the fraud committed to \r\nthe agency, was useless. He was being accused of having seized 180 million \r\ndollars.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Upon \r\nleaving Stanford, he immediately founded company Gonzalo Tirado &amp; Asociados. \r\nDuring that time, he was involved in suspicious transactions with a lot of \r\nshares of Electricidad de Caracas while he owned the Uno Valores brokerage \r\nhouse. It is said that his fortune rocketed after this \r\nnegotiation.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Representatives \r\nof MF offices based in Caracas and Panama helped him install the holding company \r\nwith \u201cgeneral\u201d business purposes or without specific purposes, according to the \r\ndocuments consulted. The key words in all of them were \"banks and ships\". One of \r\nthe purposes of all the companies that were part of the holding company was to \r\nopen bank accounts of any nature, with any bank and anywhere in the \r\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tirado \r\nbecame a client of the three companies of the MF group: Mossack Fonseca (law \r\nfirm), Mosson Trust Corporation (trust) and Mossfom Asset Management (asset \r\nmanagement).<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \r\nparallel, he acquired banks and created related companies in Venezuela. He \r\nbought InverUnion Banco Comercial to banker Ignacio Salvatierra and then \r\nacquired Mi Casa Entidad de Ahorro y Pr\u00e9stamo (savings and loan entity). The \r\nproblems returned. In the middle of the so-called mini banking crisis in late \r\n2009 and early 2010, the Venezuelan government started an investigation against \r\nTirado for allegations of operations of doubtful legality and for having \r\ndiverted funds from savers for Bs. 5 billion in loans to related \r\ncompanies.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2009Mar02 El Caso Stanford Parte II Impactos en Colombia y Venezuela\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O-fvtU6HjYs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t \n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According \r\nto the files, Tirado formed a structure to carry out operations to the detriment \r\nof the banks. The judicial qualification of \"necessary accomplice\" to commit \r\ncrime adds to his list. On a February 14, Valentine's Day, he traveled to Aruba, \r\nas recorded in his latest immigration movement registered with Saime \r\n(Administrative Service of Identification, Migration, and Immigration), not \r\navoid facing a trial with charges of up to ten years in \r\nprison.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \r\nformer banker requested political asylum in the USA in 2010. So far, the process \r\ncontinues before the US authorities, who also denied his extradition to \r\nVenezuelan territory. Until then, everything went well for Tirado, but not for \r\nseveral of the bank managers who accompanied him in InverUnion and Mi Casa EAP, \r\nwho had to serve prison terms in the \r\ncountry.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Shells<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \r\nparallel structure of Gonzalo Tirado &amp; Asociados began with a series of \r\ncontacts and exchange of documentation between its offices in Caracas, located \r\nin El Rosal and MF offices in Venezuela and Panama in 2007. This financial \r\nstructure began with the creation of Panbienes (Panamanian Property Fund), with \r\na capital of 1 million 52 thousand dollars, and which end the bankruptcy of \r\nanother financial institution took place once again.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \r\nSuperintendency of Banks of Panama sanctioned Panbienes several times until it \r\nended closing its doors after reporting a pyramid scheme. The Board consisted of \r\nTirado, accompanied by Edgar Montserrat, Ronald Rostoker and Martin Lustgarten \r\n\u2014the latter has been involved in very high profile judicial cases in both \r\nVenezuela and the USA.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another \r\ncompany registered in the isthmus in March 2007 is Richgrove International Inc, \r\nwith directors other than Tirado and created to channel a 2.5 million dollar \r\ninvestment in the Finansbanken Bank of Copenhagen. On March 19, 2007, that \r\ncompany granted Tirado power to manage the company's bank account in \r\nDenmark.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until \r\n2007, Tirado was president of a company in Panama called Ema Business Inc - also \r\nran by MF - created in April of that year with a capital of US$ 10,000. Based on \r\nMF leaked documents, it was disincorporated almost immediately. Even today, this \r\nfirm continues appearing as active and its directors are Tirado\u2019 usual partners: \r\nPedro Paredes, Edgar Montserrat and Francisco Acevedo. While Montserrat (52% of \r\nthe shares), Omar Gonz\u00e1lez and Daniel Vitri\u00e1n (11.5% each), and Sacha Ratti, \r\nFrancisco Gadea, Eduardo Saturno, and Amir Nassar Tayupe (6.25% in equal shares) \r\nalso appear as shareholders.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Other \r\ncompanies of the Tirado-Paredes-Montserrat-Acevedo group are Gotir Holding Inc, \r\nFAL Business Inc, HR Development Inc., all part of GT Business Inc, also created \r\nwith $ 10,000 capital and 100% owned by the former banker. The same group \r\nregistered in 2007 through MF, the Caminos del Viento Foundation, which does \r\nbusiness mainly in Panama<EM>.<\/EM><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PP-15.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52091\"\/><figcaption>After the closure of Stanford Bank, Tirado forged his way in Panama with offshore companies. Photo: Flickr\/badboypp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Panbienes Pyramid<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \r\nfinancial structure continued growing in 2008. Based on MF's communications, \r\nTirado appears linked to company Greyrose Holdings Corp, registered on January \r\n14, 2008 with a $ 10,000 capital. In this company, Tirado has equal shares with \r\nPedro Jos\u00e9 Paredes Sierra, who joined the board of directors of Inverunion and \r\nMi Casa EAP and was also accused of misappropriation or diversion of resources \r\nestablished in the General Law of Banks and other Financial \r\nInstitutions.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \r\nformer banker is linked to another Panamanian company, Perth Consultants S.A. \r\nwhere he is beneficiary of 50%, and the other 50% belongs to Daniella Lainville \r\nde Tirado (his ex-wife). He is also associated with a company from the British \r\nVirgin Islands, Harley Sound Development LTD, created on January 23, 2008, \r\nalthough in the file of Tirado, Pedro Jos\u00e9 Paredes Sierra is the beneficiary of \r\nthe 99% and Francisco Acevedo Landaluce (who was director of the Unovalores \r\nbrokerage house) of the 1%.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gainstone \r\nFoundation of Panama, assigned by MF to Tirado is the formal shareholder of \r\nthese companies. It was registered in April 2009 and its shareholders are two \r\nfoundations of Mossack Fonseca.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During \r\nthis period, Panbienes was reported in Panama for being a sort of financial \r\npyramid. In an email sent in March 2008 to MF, Martin Lustgarten refers to \r\nTirado as \"my ex-partner in Panbienes\" and says that he has sold his shares in \r\nthe company.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Accounts Beyond Panama<\/h2>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As \r\na reference to open his account as a client in MF, Tirado submitted in 2007 a \r\nseries of bank records in Venezuela (Banco Venezolano de Cr\u00e9dito and Banco \r\nCanarias) and in other countries (Wachovia in Miami, HSBC and UBS in \r\nZurich).<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \r\naddition to the Danish Finansbanken, the Tirado group appears making strong \r\nforeign currency deposits at the Berenberg Bank of Switzerland, in the name of \r\ncompany Davenhill Assets S.A. It was registered in January 2007, with Edgar \r\nMontserrat as beneficiary. The internal exchange of emails of MF identifies \r\nthese transactions as part of escrow accounts aimed to pay loan \r\ncollaterals.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \r\none of the documents submitted to MF to request to be its client, Tirado said \r\nthat he \"aims to diversify his investments\" and that the money to invest \"is a \r\npart of his life savings\".<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \r\nSeptember 2010, Tirado apologized to MF for not being able to provide \r\ninformation about some companies that he had in the British Virgin Islands, \r\nbecause he did not have the documents \"because of the way we left\" from \r\nVenezuela, admitting in writing that his departure, even if not irregular, it \r\nwas at least very hasty.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tirado \r\ncompanies managed by MF appear to have been declared inactive in 2011. However, \r\nin 2013, the law firm was still talking about a debit balance of the former \r\nbanker with them. Apparently, their reservations to accept him as a client were \r\nclear at that time.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wps-pgfw-pdf-generate-icon__wrapper-frontend pgfw-icon-display pgfw-icon-display--default\" style=\"--pgfw-icon-justify:center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417\/?action=genpdf&#038;id=2417\" class=\"pgfw-single-pdf-download-button pgfw-single-pdf-download-button--default pgfw-single-pdf-download-button--icon-only\" title=\"Generate PDF\" style=\"--pgfw-icon-width:25px;--pgfw-icon-height:45px;\" aria-label=\"Download PDF\"><span class=\"pgfw-single-pdf-download-button__media\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><img src=\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-generator-for-wp\/admin\/src\/images\/PDF_Tray.svg\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"><\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ex-banker used the services of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca to register companies in tax havens while he was being tried in Venezuela by his ex-colleagues from the Stanford Group. He said he was a victim of chavism to be accepted as a client and thus protect his fortune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":52092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387,2210],"tags":[507,755,162,142],"pais":[4216],"serie":[4217],"localizacion":[4227],"ppma_author":[2238],"class_list":["post-2417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internacionales","category-investigacion","tag-banquero","tag-gonzalo-tirado","tag-los-creadores-de-panama-papers","tag-mossack-fonseca","pais-venezuela-en","serie-panama-papers-en"],"acf":{"reportage-top-html":""},"views":3137,"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2387,"label":"Internacionales"},{"value":2210,"label":"Investigacion"}],"post_tag":[{"value":507,"label":"Banquero"},{"value":755,"label":"Gonzalo 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FIGUEROA","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"AHIANA","last_name":"FIGUEROA","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2417"},{"taxonomy":"pais","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pais?post=2417"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=2417"},{"taxonomy":"localizacion","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/localizacion?post=2417"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}