Offshore Planning Disaster- Initial News Report
The most recent Blog post discussed an actual disaster of several debtors' offshore asset protection plans. All of these debtors had placed money in different offshore accounts all of which were under the management and control of the same attorney in Costa Rica, whose name is Mario Quintana. Mr. Quintana, apparently, was well respected in his community and a local political leader. Today, these clients find themselves without access to their money after the attorney they trusted with their wealth was found dead by suicide last Wednesday. Whether Mr. Quintana killed himself because he had stolen money from his clients' accounts is unknown. The story illustrates the risk of using offshore asset protection. Whether the party in control of offshore funds is an attorney or even a financial institution there is a substantial risk involved in maintaining offshore financial accounts.
The following is the initial newspaper report of Mr. Quintana's suicide from the Tico Times newspaper in Costa Rica.
Political Party Founder
Takes His Own Life
By Steven J. Barry
Tico Times Staff
sbarry@ticotimes.net
Mario Quintana, one of the founding members of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC), which is now in the spotlight for corruption investigations into some of its most prominent members, took his own life Wednesday around 5 p.m. with a .357 Magnum, according to the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ).
OIJ spokeswoman Margarita Morales said Quintana, 58, wrote a note before firing a round into his right temple, but the note was "ambiguous" and did not outline the exact reasons for his suicide.
She said Quintana's family members described him as "sad" and "depressed" in recent days, but never thought him to be suicidal.
Morales said Quintana was not being investigated in connection with the corruption scandals linked to former Presidents Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (1998-2002) and Rafael Ángel Calderón (1990-94), both members of the ruling PUSC party.
Quintana, though he never served in public office, was the political party's president from 1990-92.
Neither PUSC president Lorena Vásquez nor party secretary Jorge Eduardo Sánchez could be reached for comment by press time.
