Based on the complaints revealed by EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) have already begun to investigate the collection of millionaire sums of money by a luxury Ferrari car dealership that started to default on its clientele.
Over the weekend, EL TIEMPO revealed that, even, the luxurious showroom located in northern Bogotá closed its doors and the only thing they have received are letters that do not tell them whether or not the payments they made will be returned.
The SIC’s requirement
According to EL TIEMPO’s investigation – picked up by other media – the business was done through the company Autos Italianos de Colombia S.A. whose alternate legal representative was Henry Ávila, the same person who attended to them in the showroom.
But, according to documents in possession of this newspaper, the shareholders are Mexican businessmen Sergio de la Vega and Erik Stolberg Fernández, and the Colombian Jorge Enrique Carvajales Orozco.
The latter was president of Reficar between 2006 and 2008. In fact, he was called for questioning in the case of cost overruns in the refinery’s modernization.
Sources from the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to EL TIEMPO that they have already started contacting businessmen who invested up to 2 billion pesos in Ferrari Roma Spider and Ferrari 296 GTS, worth 3.4 billion pesos.
According to documents signed by Ávila, the cars were to be delivered in May of this year, but now there is neither money nor Ferrari.
Cielo Rusinque herself, head of the SIC, told EL TIEMPO that a requirement had already been sent to the company whose existence was revealed by this newspaper.
Enrichment and money laundering?
For several of the victims who approached EL TIEMPO to report the case, the crimes of conspiracy to commit a crime, money laundering, and even illicit enrichment could be taking shape.
Ferrari North America sent a letter stating that it had withdrawn the brand’s representation from the company Autos Italianos de Colombia, with headquarters in Panama, for having sold the concession without authorization.
(Consult all articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit here)
But in another letter, the new owners – the firm Autos de Alta Gama Holdings SA – stated that it was a loan made to the company owning the concession, in which all shares were held as collateral.
Ávila, who no longer acts as legal representative, told some former clients to seek lawyers to hold them accountable for the money.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
u.investigativa@eltiempo.com
@UinvestigativaET
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