13 Internet bank fraud raids
net 11, Dall'Anese reports


Investigators conducted 13 raids and detained 11 persons Tuesday in another sweeping attack against Internet bank fraud.

The Poder Judicial press spokesperson also said that the individuals will face a conspiracy count. The arrests are the latest effort by investigators to stop the continual raiding of accounts at the nation's banks.

In the late afternoon a prosecutor from the Fiscalia de Fraude went before a judge to seek one year's preventative detention for the suspects. Agents said that there might be more arrests because others are being sought.

The arrests were the topic of a morning press conference given by Francisco Dall’Anese, the nation's chief prosecutor.
The Poder Judicial said raids were done at these locations:

• A house in El Roble de Alajuela occupied by a man with the last name of Sirias;

• A house in Barrio Lujan in San José;

• A house in Hatillo 6 occupied by a man with the last name of Benavides and a woman with the name Rivera;

• A house occupied by a man with the last name of Solano in El Guarco in Cartago;

• Another house in El Roble de Alajuela;

• A third house in El Roble occupied by a woman with the last name of Bolaños;

• A house of a man with the last name of Monge in Alajuelita, a San José suburb to the south;

• A house in Villa Esperanza, Pavas;

• A house occupied by a man with the last name of Castro in San Rafael de Desampardos;

• A house in Quircot de Cartago occupied by a man with the last name of Vindas;

• A house in León XIII in Tibás occupied by a man with the last name of Segura;

• A house of a man with the last name of Berrocal in Jardines de Cascajal in Paso Ancho, and

• The home of a man with the last name of Rodríguez in San Carlos

Many of the suspects are believed to be persons who accepted stolen transfers into their own bank accounts. This has been the case with previous arrests. The fraud takes place when crooks manage to steal or otherwise obtain account information of victims. Money is quickly drained from the account and transferred rapidly among accounts to confuse investigators.

The character of some of the recent thefts suggested that they were done by persons with inside access. But the Poder Judicial spokesperson said none of those arrested Tuesday were bank employees.

Health officials in Tamarindo
cite businesses for problems


Almost every business in Tamarindo checked by the Ministerio de Salud will be served with a sanitary order, Frederico Amador, executive director of Associación Pro-Mejoras Playa Tamarindo, said Tuesday.

Health ministry officials finished a two-week inspection of the Pacific beach town Friday.  They attempted to establish the source of the massive sewage contamination in the ocean that was discovered during tests by the Instituto Nacional de Acueductos y Alcantarillados and published in October.

Officials arrived with a list of 250 businesses to check, but aimed to check every business in the town, constituting up to 300 businesses.  They asked for documents and information about everything from the number of employees to methods of kitchen waste disposal, and checked on-site equipment, said Amador.

Amador said that each business had something wrong with it, whether it be missing emergency lights, an inadequate sewage treatment system, or a lack of the correct permit to exist on concession land.

Businesses will now have a specified period of time to correct their problems, ranging from one month upwards depending on the severity of the issue, and if the owners fail to reach acceptable standards within this time the health ministry will take moves to shut them down.

“Some businesses need a professional follow up,” said Mr. Amador. “The officials will be back in January with engineers and technicians to take a closer look at these cases.”
Amador was unable to provide names of specific businesses.

“We seem to have passed the preliminary checks,” said James Webster, director of Witch's Rock Surf Camp, which has not yet received an order. “They're taking it a lot more seriously than previous checks they have done, which clearly did not uncover all the problems. If they've tried to do something like this before, they didn't do it very well.”

The health ministry workers now are expected to analyse the collected data they have collected to check and verify the information that the businesses have provided.

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