5 mega cases expected to go to trial in 2025

QCOSTARICA — In recent years, Costa Rica has been the scene of a series of scandals of alleged corruption and organized crime that, due to their magnitude, social impact and political consequences, have been labeled as “megacases”.

Beyond the media exposure, what happened to them?

Costa Rica’s Fiscal General (Attorney General), Carlo Díaz, has provided an update on each of the cases, Cochinilla, Diamante, La Trocha, Turesky, Yanber, Aldesa, el Cementazo, Azteca, Madre Patria and Barrenador, that are still under investigation or waiting for a hearing date to be set.

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Díaz confirmed that five, Aldesa, La Trocha, Azteca, Turesky, and Yanber, will go to trial this year.

Below is an excerpt from the most controversial cases:

Soresco was founded in 2009, during the administration of Óscar Arias Sánchez, with funds from the Refinadora Costarricense de Petroleo (Recope) and the National Petroleum Corporation of China (CNPC). Its objective was to create a new refinery in Moín, Limón.

Since 2012, the Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation to determine whether or not alleged irregularities existed. In this case, the six defendants did not go to trial, after the Criminal Court of the II Judicial Circuit of San José ordered, in July 2022, a definitive dismissal for insufficient evidence in the preliminary phase of the process.

La Trocha is one of the most notorious mega-corruption cases in road works in Costa Rica and broke out on May 4, 2012. At least 13 people are being investigated for different crimes such as embezzlement, illicit enrichment, concealment of assets, bribery, punishment of the corruptor, and money laundering.

The Ministerio Publica (Public Prosecutor’s Office) accused 26 people in 2017, but a definitive dismissal (filing due to lack of evidence) was requested against 47, including former President Laura Chinchilla and the former head of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Francisco Jiménez.

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Regarding Yanber, it consists of an investigation in which, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, between 2011 and 2015, it was determined that the top management of the company Corporación Yanber S.A. had manipulated the company’s financial statements.

In this way, the staff of these public and private companies would have been misled and, under this false belief, granted loans to said company, which amounted to millions of dollars and billions of colones.

With the evidence obtained, the Deputy Prosecutor’s Office for Economic, Tax, Customs and Intellectual Property Crimes managed to prove that the total economic damage would amount to approximately US$24 million dollars (about ¢12.480 million at the current exchange rate).

The Cementazo refers to a loan granted by the Bank of Costa Rica (BCR) of US$20 million for the import of Chinese cement. The case splashed figures from the political and judicial sphere.

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The main file is the one that analyzes the financing, although there are other secondary ones. The accusation falls on seven people, however, it has not even reached a preliminary hearing due to constant requests for rescheduling.

The Aldesa case became known in April 2019, when the corporation requested a judicial intervention because it says it does not have the liquidity to honor its debts. This caused damage to solidarity associations, individuals and legal entities that today exceeds US$200 million.

In the Aldesa case, 23 people were accused. It is a case that had repercussions in the stock market, financial and real estate sectors, as well as in market regulators.

Turesky is an investigation into national and international drug trafficking that would have been carried out by a group that is accused of sending at least 11,378 kilograms of cocaine to Europe and the United States, as well as money laundering and ideological falsehood. In this case, 23 people were charged in 2021.

However, at the end of June this year, the Court of Appeals of the Specialized Jurisdiction for Organized Crime (JEDO) ordered the release of 10 people and the relaxation of measures against another 13.

As for Cochinilla, there are several cases in which 67 people appear as suspects, however, the Deputy Prosecutor’s Office for Probity, Transparency and Anti-Corruption (Fapta) filed two charges against 12 public and private officials.

The first of these is related to the construction company MECO and Conavi, since, according to the accusation, the public officials carried out acts contrary to their duties in exchange for gifts offered and delivered by individuals from the private company.

The second accusation involves the same state institution and the company H. Solís, since the latter allegedly gave bribes to public employees to generate direct and undue benefits, that is, to make them carry out acts contrary to their duties aimed at adjusting the Conavi budget to the satisfaction of the private interests of the construction company.

In the Diamante case, 13 people are linked for alleged acts of corruption in the contracting and construction of public works. The Costa Rican construction company MECO is the main company accused of facilitating the alleged corruption schemes.

During the mega-operation in which the investigations were carried out, there were 40 simultaneous actions in the country, carried out by 600 agents and 32 prosecutors, in November 2021.

23 people were arrested in the Azteca case, including 14 public officials from the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA) – water and sewer utility, for alleged crimes of drug trafficking and money laundering.

According to the investigations, it was determined that the subjects created companies dedicated to construction with which they participated in the bidding of public works and, with the help of public officials, they won the contests and in exchange they obtained economic benefit.

The main activity would consist of drug trafficking and focused on the Central Pacific.

Madre Patria was the name given to a case for which 54 people are charged who apparently formed a criminal structure dedicated to registry fraud and that, apparently, would have stolen up to 300 properties.

Five traffic police officers, an official from the Public Transport Council, five judicial officials, including a judge from the Desamparados Court of the Republic, would be involved.

The last case on this list is called Barrenador, it came to light during the last four months of 2024 and refers to the creation of an alleged corrupt system to favor several health cooperatives.

The aim is to find out if there is an alleged 33% overpricing in the awarding of contracts to cooperatives for the operation of Ebáis. The Prosecutor’s Office arrested Marta Eugenia Esquivel, former president of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), and seven other people.

Following are the names of the people involved (defendants), the alleged crimes committed, dates and status of each:

Soresco

• Defendants: González Fonseca, Trejos Gómez, Naranjo Sánchez, Ulate Pagett, Edwards Earle and Yan Xu.

• Crimes: prevarication, embezzlement, breach of duty, among others.

• Status: dismissed. (Archived due to lack of evidence)

• Date: 2012-2022.

La Trocha

• Defendants: Acosta Monge, Serrano Alvarado, Ramírez Marín, Mesén Vargas, Agüero Gamboa, Mora Barrantes, Castillo Villalobos, Baralis Crosetti, Herra Alfaro, Soto Campos, Méndez Méndez, Alvarado Víquez, Morera Fernández.

• Crimes: embezzlement, illicit enrichment, concealment of assets, bribery, punishment of the corruptor and money laundering.

• Status: scheduled for debate from February 17 to August 22, 2025.

• Date: May 2012-present.

Yanber

• Defendants: Yankelewitz Berger, Yankelewitz Lev, Barboza Lépiz, Soto Bolaños, Paniagua Moya, Sandí Sandí and García Neira.

• Crimes: They were charged with the unlawful conduct of major fraud.

• Status: with accusation. Preliminary hearing for July 1 to August 29, 2025.

• Date: 2016-present.

Cementazo

• Defendants: Bolaños Rojas, Mora Tumminelli, Acuña Alvarado, Barrantes Campos, Corrales Barboza, Cortés Zúñiga, Ramírez Rodríguez, Rojas Segura and Víquez Lizano.

• Crimes: embezzlement, influence peddling, ideological falsehood, use of false documents, falsification of public documents, improper capture of verbal statements, influence against the public treasury and receiving, legalization or concealment of public property.

• Status: with accusation and awaiting preliminary hearing.

• Date: 2016-present.

Aldesa

• Defendants: Chaves Bolaños, Chaves Bolaños (another person), Artiñano Ferris, Ulibarri Bilbao, Montealegre Saborío, Oreamuno Morera, Villar Barrantes, Aguilar Arias, Mendoza Orozco, Araya Salas, Garita Carballo, Simón Rojas, Mesén Araya, Alfaro Chacón, Morera Calvo, Calderón Meza, Balma Calderón, Mesalles Jorba, Díaz Solís, Luconi Bustamante, Rojas García, Jaramillo Cordero and Castillo Cruz.

• Crimes: fraud and violation of the Organic Law of the Central Bank of Costa Rica.

• Status: with accusation and hearing scheduled from November 3 to December 12, 2025.

• Date: 2019-present.

Turesky

• Defendants: James Wilson, Cartín Ceba, Picado Marín, Soto Rivera, Zúñiga Araya (woman), Cartín Ramírez, Wein Calvin, Gutiérrez Gutiérrez, Gutiérrez Agüero (woman), Chacón Bonilla, Solís Sánchez, Bejarano Benavides and Praslin Delgado, Alfaro Pérez, Picado Mora, Aguilar Ulloa (woman), Molina Fonseca, Alfaro Alfaro, Vega Quirós, Mora Núñez (woman), Guadamuz Herrera (woman) and Marín Madrigal.

• Crimes: international drug trafficking and money laundering.

• Status: with accusation and in February 2025 the preliminary hearing will be held.

• Date: May 2021-present.

Cochinilla

• Defendants: Cerdas Araya (owner of MECO)*, Bolaños Salazar, González Carballo, Arce Alpízar, Solís Vargas (owner of the H. Solís construction company), Naranjo Vargas, Abarca Quesada and Godínez Abarca, and officials and former officials of Conavi, identified as Solís Murillo, Carmona Rivas, Meléndez Cerdas and Zúñiga Fallas.

• Crimes: bribery and penalty for the corruptor.

• Status: preparatory stage, that is, under investigation.

• Date: June 2021-present.

Diamante

• Defendants: Araya Monge, Córdoba Soro, Redondo Poveda, Soto Herrera, Cole De León, Barahona Cortés, Boraschi González, Chacón Ugalde, Suárez Vásquez, Mayorga Mayorga, Castro Camacho, Cruz Porras and Gutiérrez Vargas.

• Crimes: corruption in the contracting and construction of public works.

• Status: awaiting an indictment in the coming months.

• Date: November 2021-present.

Azteca

• Defendants: Montaño Mosquera, Camelo Mendez, Segura Aguilar, Garcia Jr., Lopez Cobo, Guillen Sanchez, Fernandez Vargas, Espinoza Carazo, Avila Cortes, Arias Cordero, Acuna Rojas, Araya Araya, Villalobos Zuniga, Torres Hernandez, Araya Ly, Fonseca Hernandez, Calvo Chaves, Aguilar Jimenez, Corrales Casanova, Vindas Romero, Cordero Barrantes, Mora Guevara, Balcazar Ramirez, Ramirez Marin and Ulate Montoya.

• Crimes: international drug trafficking, money laundering and functional crimes.

• Status: There is already an indictment for the crime of drug trafficking, but the one for money laundering and functional crimes is still pending, which was scheduled for November 15 for a preliminary hearing, but due to the defense’s efforts it was postponed to May 2025.

• Date: 2021-present.

Madre Patria

• Defendants: Leon Muñoz (Spanish nationality), Jimenez Arias, Arrieta Solano, Rodriguez Hidalgo, Fernandez Gustavino, Gomez Gonzalez (Spanish nationality), Garcia Nunez, Prenda Matarrita (lawyer and notary), Gonzalez Araya, Herrera Gonzalez, Chaves Arias (lawyer and notary), Rojas Rojas, Gonzalez Pinto (lawyer and notary), Venegas Marin (judicial officer), Marin (Colombian nationality), Loaiza Bolandi (lawyer and notary), Barrientos Campos, Herrera Vega, Perez Barboza, Gonzalez Jimenez, Aguilar Zuniga, Fernandez Bonilla, Alvarado Amador, Ramirez Zumbado, Morera Quesada, Perez Alcazar, Campos Bolanos and Rosales Apu.

• Crimes: ideological falsehood, use of false documents, major fraud, money laundering, procurement of impunity and bribery.

• Status: under investigation, still missing many elements.

• Date: June 2024-present.