FEDERAL COURT IN UNITED STATED FINDS GUSTAVO GOMEZ LOPEZ INOCENT
SUMMARY JUDGMENT RULING (ENGLISH) – TRADUCCIÓN PARCIAL (SPANISH)
Federal Judge Shelby Highsmith says that there was no evidence of Fraud or practice of «Racketeering».
El Nacional – April 2, 2000
FEDERAL COURT IN UNITED STATED FINDS GUSTAVO GOMEZ LOPEZ INOCENT
ON ALL COUNTS.
• Federal Judge Shelby Highsmith says that there was no evidence of Fraud
or practice of «Racketeering».
• The attorney’s fees paid by the Venezuelan Bolivarian Republic, have been estimated in 20 million dollars
• In preparation for the trial, witnesses from both side agreed that there was
not any personal benefits from the defendants.
• A plaintiff’s lawyer testified in a sworn deposition that the motivation of this action was merely political.
• The decision also acquits Maria Teresa Pulgar, Giacomo Leon, Pedro Gilly and
Folco Falchi.
In a decision dated April 20, Judge Shelby Highsmith from the United States Southern District Court of Florida, granted summary judgment in favor of former President, Directors and Advisor of Banco Latino International, mainly because there was not a single evidence in support of the allegations of fraud and racketeering -use of an institution as a vehicle to commit acts of corruption-.
This law suit was filed in 1995, by Gustavo Roosen, and presented to the public through a media conference; Andres Caldera, Secretary of the President and Ivan Dario Badell, Venezuela’s Attorney General also attended the press conference, where a «decision in 120 days was offered, as well as a guarantee that the defendants would be found guilty due to the multiple violations of the American Laws perpetrated by the private administrators of the Bank.»
The action asserts claims for violation of the federal civil RICO Statute, conspiracy to violate the federal civil RICO statute, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty of care, breach of fiduciary duty of loyalty, common law civil conspiracy and constructive fraud. The decision states «All of these claims fail because BLI is unable to demonstrate that it was in anyway defrauded or betrayed by Defendants.»
During discovery (pre-trial), various depositions were taken in presence of both sides, among them, one from the very own plaintiff’s lawyer retained for the Bankruptcy proceeding, who declared under oath that he was a witness to a telephone conversation where Gustavo Roosen personally instructed this claim to be filed as soon as possible because there was a tremendous amount of pressure from President Caldera who wanted to show «something» to the Venezuelans.
It was also revealed during pre-trial and based upon the testimonies of witnesses from both sides, that Banco Latino International did not incur in any patrimonial lost. All it’s depositors fully recovered their moneys, all the loans were repaid in full, and the «deposit portfolio» was sold to SunTrust Bank with millions in profit. Up to this day, Banco Latino International still has a cash account with a balance of more than 15 million dollars.
Witnesses also agreed that there was never a personal benefit in favor of defendants.
With regard of the racketeering claim, the court says » There is no evidence to support that the transactions constituted an actionable pattern of racketeering» Likely the court says in regards of the fraud and civil conspiracy claims «Because the transactions were not intended to defraud BLI, they cannot support BLI’s claims for fraud and civil conspiracy».
The court concludes » This litigation has dragged on for five years and cost the litigants millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees. At this juncture, Banco Latino International is left asserting, in a blanket fashion, an array of vague fraud based claims against a hodgepodge of its former officers, directors and advisors. As explained above, none of theses claims can withstand scrutiny»
This decision also granted the motion for summary judgment of Maria Teresa Pulgar, Folco Falchi, Pedro Gilly Calzadilla y Giacomo Leon. Before this decision, defendant Eloy Montenegro, was dismissed from the case due to an specific request by BLI’s lawyers.
In conclusion, Venezuela lost but it’s lawyers were paid in full. It is said that more than 20 million dollars were incurred in attorney’s fees.
As a consequence of this costly failure, criminal investigations will be opened against those public officers who initiated and financed with Venezuelan public’s funds this process which was criticized at the time not only by the national and international media, but by the financial community in and outside the country.