Costa Rican authorities believe that $47.5 million has been laundered specifically through Malta as part of an online betting company’s money-laundering scam.
According to investigators in the Central American country, the funds were laundered through a company registered in Valletta, while the website of the online betting operation from which the funds were allegedly laundered (5Dimes) is also registered in Malta – in San Gwann, to be precise.
Ongoing investigations by the Costa Rican authorities into a massive money-laundering operation are placing Malta at centre stage after the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) raised the alarm that something was not right with the fact that the Maltese company, Woodtree Equipment Ltd, recorded virtually untraceable revenues of $1,444 billion and expenses of $1.282 billion in 2014.
While the company is registered in Malta, Woodtree Equipment Ltd’s owners are based in the British Virgin Islands, according to filings with the Malta Financial Services Authority’s registry of companies.
The Costa Rican company under investigation, 5Dimes, allegedly laundered money by transferring it through two companies, one of which is registered in Malta and the other in Dubai.
The accounts were closed down in November following an investigation by the BCR, after it had been unable to locate the source of over a billion dollars in revenue.
The majority shareholder of these companies – the Malta-registered Woodtree Equipment Ltd and the Dubai-registered Latitude Global – is a woman named Marisol Carvajal Cordero. The parent company of 5Dimes is Red Planet S.A, which is also listed under Cordero’s name.
The BCR’s investigation into the funds found it “unusual” that Cordero is a shareholder of the two companies that pumped money into Latinamerica Trust & Escrow Company SA (Latco), a company dedicated to real estate and trust administration in Costa Rica. According to the bank, Cordero’s socioeconomic profile did not match that of a person who, abroad, handles hundreds of millions of dollars.
Moreover, the bank found that “The transfer of funds in such high amounts, from untraditional countries such as Malta and the United Arab Emirates, for a Costa Rican business suggests at least an unusual situation.”
According to the BCR, the companies located in Malta and Dubai have had no audited financial statements since 2014, when the $1.5 billion in revenue was reported.
According to Costa Rican investigators, some $67 million was transferred from Caravajal’s accounts in Malta and Dubai to Latco, a company set up to handle real estate administration in Costa Rica. The money was moved in 25 transfers from Malta, totalling $47.5 million, while $19.3 million was transferred through a Dubai company, Latitude Global. Most of this money was transferred to other Latco accounts and a third of it went to accounts in Panama and Peru.
In the meantime, 5Dimes is being investigated by the American authorities on suspicion that it has instructed American bettors to use Amazon gift cards to fund their accounts.
According to the international media, the US Department of Homeland Security has filed a seizure warrant against the company to disrupt funds being channelled through Amazon gift cards. The company operates from San Pedro de Montes de Oca, in Costa Rica.
Investigations are ongoing.