{"id":2440,"date":"2016-05-08T12:51:07","date_gmt":"2016-05-08T12:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armando.info\/?p=2440"},"modified":"2016-05-08T12:51:07","modified_gmt":"2016-05-08T12:51:07","slug":"omar-farias-luces-a-socialism-magnate-who-secured-his-funds-in-a-tax-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/omar-farias-luces-a-socialism-magnate-who-secured-his-funds-in-a-tax-haven\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar Far\u00edas Luces: A Socialism Magnate who secured his Funds in a Tax Haven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Six \r\nyears before entrepreneur Omar Jes\u00fas Far\u00edas Luces appeared involved in the Banco \r\nde Madrid scandal of March 2015, as one of the Venezuelans investigated for \r\nmoney laundering in the subsidiary of Banca Privada de Andorra (BPA), the \r\nirregular management of his company in Ecuador were already mentioned in the \r\nconfidential documents of Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm specialized \r\nin hiding fortunes of powerful people in tax havens, as confirmed by the global \r\njournalistic investigation Panama Papers<\/I>.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Apart \r\nfrom the 20 companies that make up Corporaci\u00f3n OFL (the entrepreneur's \r\ninitials), with presence in Venezuela, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and \r\nPanama, the so-called \"insurance tsar\" opened four offshore companies in British \r\nAnguilla, a Caribbean archipelago known for its white sand beaches and turquoise \r\nwaters and as a destination for shell companies, a paradise to evade taxes and \r\nhide assets.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nrelationship of Far\u00edas Luces with Mossak Fonseca goes back to 2007, when he \r\nregistered as the sole director and partner of the three companies Win \r\nEnterprises Limited, Quinlan Services LTD and Albridge Marketing in Anguilla, \r\nthrough the efforts of the Panamanian law firm branch office in Caracas. That \r\nsame year, he opened operations in Ecuador with his flagship, Seguros \r\nConstituci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

But \r\nin 2009, his reactivation as a client in the Panama parent company was discussed \r\namong managers of the Panamanian law firm for the pros and cons represented by \r\nthe controversial Venezuelan owner, whose business activity has strikingly \r\nexpanded during the years of Chavismo<\/I>.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

\"I \r\nkeep my fingers crossed. It can mean A LOT,\" wrote in an email dated October 13, \r\n2009, the CEO of Mossfon Trust, one of Mossack Fonseca subsidiaries in Panama, \r\nwhen referring to Far\u00edas Luces. So that there are no doubts about the \r\nexpectations about this \"prospective client\", the subject of the emails \r\nexchanged is \"MAJOR CLIENT-VENEZUELA\", with continued capital \r\nletters.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Although \r\nFar\u00edas Luces is not identified in the documents as a politically exposed person \r\n(PEP), there were reservations about him. On October 9, 2009, Mossack \r\nFonseca\/Mossfon* ordered by email to investigate the owner of Aseguradora \r\nConstituci\u00f3n in Venezuela, referring to him as a \"SUPER-SUPER potential client \r\n... A major, huge entrepreneur, but I think he should be in close contact with \r\nCh\u00e1vez. If he is more or less acceptable, it might even be worth visiting him \r\nwith Axel. His carrier is a MONSTER\" (sic), emphasizes the general director of \r\nthe Panamanian law firm.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

But \r\non Monday, October 12, the law firm warned in a brief report about a story \r\npublished in the newspaper La Hora de Quito, in May 2009: Ecuador\u2019s General \r\nProsecutor\u2019s Office had opened an investigation against Far\u00edas \r\nLuces for money laundering<\/A>. \r\nThe audit of the Ecuadorian Superintendency of Banks and Insurance Companies \r\ndetermined that the income as capital contributions had been used for expenses \r\nother than the initial purpose, and that the funds were not property of Seguros \r\nConstituci\u00f3n but of Far\u00edas himself.
They also mention documents that warn \r\nthat Far\u00edas managed to amass his current equity \"thanks to his contact with key \r\nfigures of the government of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez\".<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Mossack \r\nFonseca\u2019s report of 10-12-2009 concludes that Far\u00edas \"is an acceptable client; \r\nhowever, d proceed with great caution because of the high risk that he \r\nrepresents.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

But \r\nthe CEO of Mossfon dismissed those suspicions by assuring: \"WE ALREADY HAVE \r\nRELATIONSHIPS with Far\u00edas and we can approve them as clients\". He said in the \r\nsame letter that the husband of a senior manager of the Panamanian law firm is \r\nan administrative manager of Seguros Constituci\u00f3n in Panama, since February \r\n2009, and that Mossfon manager in Venezuela, Jeannette Almeida, \"knows him very \r\nwell,\" as he manages her affairs and even managed the purchase of the 14th floor \r\nin Torre de las Am\u00e9ricas, the headquarters of Seguros Constituci\u00f3n in Panama, \"a \r\nlarge insurance group with offices in Ecuador and the Dominican \r\nRepublic.\"<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

In \r\nthat same email of 2009, the general manager of Mossfon details on the health of \r\nFar\u00edas Luces companies in Ecuador. The person in charge of opening the operation \r\nin Panama was sent to the Andean country to set things in order, as those in \r\ncharge there \"seem to be squandering money and the company was in the \r\nred.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

A \r\n\"rumor\" adds up to the file of Far\u00edas Luces. In an internal email of December 8, \r\n2009, it is emphasized that according to unofficial versions, the president of \r\nSeguros Constituci\u00f3n had been detained in Maiquet\u00eda by the Venezuelan political \r\npolice when he was trying to flee from Venezuela through the Maiquet\u00eda \r\nInternational Airport. \"Far\u00edas is linked to the drug trafficker \"Le\u00f3n Cachito\", \r\nnative of G\u00fciria,\" in the state of Sucre, coincidentally, the same hometown of \r\nFar\u00edas.<\/p>\n\n\n

From G\u00fciria to the Tax Haven<\/h2>\n\n\n

Documents \r\nof Mossack Fonseca indicate that Far\u00edas Luces registered in 2007 three companies \r\nin the island of British Anguilla, British overseas territory, 953 km (592.16 \r\nmi) from Caracas, with a capital of 50 thousand dollars, respectively: Quinlan \r\nServices LTD (March 6), Albridge Marketing (August 23) and Win Enterprise \r\nLimited (February 27). The latter changed its name to Corporaci\u00f3n OFL on October \r\n16, 2009.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nthree companies are classified as \"International Bussines Company\" (IBC) of \r\nBritish Anguilla, although their business activity is not \r\nspecified.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Although \r\nthe three companies were registered in the island of Anguilla, the domicile is \r\nin Caracas, specifically at Torre Nord, Avenida Tamanaco, El Rosal, an area that \r\nin recent years lost its shine as \"the financial district of Caracas\". In that \r\nsame building, other Far\u00edas Luces\u2019 health sector companies, like Net Asistencia, \r\nDental Net and Farmacias Botimarket, operate a few meters from Seguros \r\nConstituci\u00f3n, the parent company of Corporaci\u00f3n OFL, in the tower with the same \r\nname.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nefforts to register these companies in the Caribbean tax haven were directly \r\nmade between the office of Mossack Fonseca Caracas, MF Consulting LTD, located \r\nat calle La Guairita, Chuao (near the embassy of Panama), in the hands of \r\nJeannette Almeida and the subsidiary of the Panamanian law firm in British \r\nAnguilla, located in the Caribbean Commercial Centre, in the capital The \r\nValley.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

A \r\nfourth company in the name of Far\u00edas Luces was registered in Aguilla on November \r\n15, 2007, Golden Crest International Limited. According to the documents of \r\nMossack Fonseca, this firm signed a loan agreement for a King Air B200G \r\naircraft, manufactured by Hawker Beechcraft Corporation, registration number \r\nYV3661T (sic), previously N32029, property of Inversiones Aeronet, one of the \r\ncompanies in Venezuela of the Eastern businessman.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Another \r\ndocument from the files of Mossack Fonseca indicates that the King Air BY-029 \r\nwas purchased on January 11, 2008 by Golden Crest International Limited to \r\nCaribbean Aviation for
US$ 5.2 million.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\npath of Far\u00edas Luces relationships with the Bolivarian government can also be \r\ntraced through this plane. On August 22, 2009, his company Golden Crest \r\nInternational Limited provided transfer services in the Hawker Beechraft B200GT \r\nBY- 2 N32029 to a commission of the National Assembly chaired by Dar\u00edo Vivas, \r\nfrom Maiquet\u00eda airport in Caracas to La Chinita airport in Maracaibo, in order \r\nto attend an urgent meeting with President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez in Cabimas, for which the \r\naircraft deviates the route without authorization from the National Institute of \r\nCivil Aeronautics (INAC), as recorded in a decision of the Supreme Court of \r\nOctober 29, 2009.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nactivity to which these companies, created through Mossack Fonseca, are engaged \r\nin was one of the questions that both Runrun.es and the International Consortium \r\nof Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) prepared for Far\u00edas Luces. On May 3, 2016, \r\nthey requested in writing to have an interview with the president of Seguros \r\nConstituci\u00f3n at the headquarters at Avenida Venezuela, El Rosal, but they got no \r\nresponse. They also sent an email and called by phone to Seguros Constituci\u00f3n \r\nduring the week from Monday, May 2 to Friday, May 6, 2016, to request an \r\ninterview, but had no response.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\ntelephone numbers on the RNC (National Registry of Contractors) card \"are not \r\nassigned to any user or landline telephone\". Likewise, the calls made to the MF \r\nConsulting LTD office in Caracas are not \r\nanswered.<\/p>\n\n\n

He did it to Himself<\/h2>\n\n\n

The \r\nremarkable growth of Far\u00edas Luces\u2019 businesses in recent years has raised \r\nsuspicions in a context of economic contraction and high pressure against the \r\nprivate investor. With the exception of Seguros Constituci\u00f3n, which was \r\npurchased in 2005, many of the companies making up its corporation were created \r\nor acquired during the second six-year term of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez (2007-2013) when all \r\nthe economic indicators in Venezuela began to deteriorate. He is a businessman \r\nborn in revolution.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Far\u00edas \r\nLuces does not get uncomfortable when related to the Ch\u00e1vez government. \"In \r\nVenezuela, no company can say that it does not work with the government because \r\nthe government is the main buyer. All insurance companies and all insurance \r\nbrokers and intermediaries in Venezuela are behind or have accounts of the \r\nVenezuelan government. It is impossible to grow in Venezuela if you do not \r\nprovide services to the government, \"he said in a video interview included in \r\na  \r\nreport by Ecuadorian journalist  Nuria Pernia<\/A> (September \r\n16, 2014).<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t