VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMU #1192/01 1561547
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 051547Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY MANAGUA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6466
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6467

UNCLAS MANAGUA 001192 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR EB/OIA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EINV KIDE ECON CVIS NU
SUBJECT: CREATIVE PROPERTY FRAUD IN NICARAGUA 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  Nicaragua's long history of uncertain 
land tenure and a corrupt judicial system continues to 
undermine real property rights and perpetuate the instability 
of land tenure.  Recent cases (amounting to extremely 
creative fraud) demonstrate how deceptive real estate 
manipulation practices persist in 2006, many years after the 
Sandinista (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional or FSLN) 
regime was voted out of office in 1990.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The FSLN, both collectively and individually, has 
profited from manipulating the Nicaraguan judicial system as 
a means to inappropriately extract dominion over property. 
Parties now falling victim include, among others,  outright 
owners, a defunct Nicaraguan bank (BANIC), mortgage-holding 
corporate entities such as the Nicaraguan Institute for 
Social Security (INSS), and the National Grain Trade Dealer 
(ENABAS). The modus operandi is evident:  the FSLN identifies 
receptive judges, enlists their services, and creates false 
labor suits benefitting cronies or fronts --  frequently out 
of the judges' relevant jurisdictions.  Widely documented by 
the national press and even acknowledged by the Nicaraguan 
Supreme Court, this legal malfeasance has been under 
investigation for some time, although the pace of 
establishing responsibility has been glacial.  A few 
exemplary cases provide a snapshot of innovative practices 
used to deceive rightful owners of their landholdings: 
 
¶3.  (SBU) American citizen Uri Kollnesher is a resident of 
New York.  A registered claimant in the U.S. Embassy's 
Property Office database, he is the majority shareholder and 
legal representative of the Inter-American Chemical 
Corporation, Almacenes Generales de Deposito (ICADESA).  In 
1979, the principal ICADESA property was taken over by the 
FSLN-controlled government. Until 2005, ICADESA retained 
legal registry under its name, although physical possession 
of the property was in the hands of the FSLN.  At that time, 
FSLN Legal Department employee M.L. Chavarria Rivas sued the 
company, alleging that in 1995 owner Kollnesher hired her to 
take care of the property.  Claiming he neglected to pay the 
US$1,000 per month promised, she sued for US$30,000 in a 
lawsuit introduced and accepted by the Catarina, Department 
of Masaya, municipal court.  (The property is located in 
Managua and neither party resides in Catarina:  a 
jurisdiction violation.)  Nevertheless, Judge A. Berroteran 
Acevedo proceeded expeditiously, naming a legal guardian for 
ICADESA without notifying the company. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Upon acceptance of the resolution by the legal 
guardian, the property was seized and promptly auctioned off 
to a sole bidder in the person of the FSLN's local 
representative and current treasurer, F. Lopez Centeno. 
Ignoring Nicaraguan law that identifies mortgages as priority 
securities (first in line for payment after a legal auction), 
the FSLN thus strengthened its physical hold on the property. 
 ICADESA's mortgage belonged to the National Grain Trade 
Dealer, ENABAS.  Although ENABAS was notified less than 24 
hours before the auction, its representatives showed up an 
hour before it was scheduled to take place, only to be 
informed that the auction had been cancelled.  (In legal 
terms and on paper, the auction did take place; however, a 
physical auction never occurred.)  After the property was 
"sold" to the FSLN, both owner Kollnesher and ENABAS 
submitted complaints to the Nicaraguan Supreme Court, 
claiming corruption on the part of the judge. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Far from being limited to the Catarina Court, 
judicial malfeasance on property issues is a nationwide 
phenomenon.  In a February 23, 2006 article, Nicaraguan daily 
newspaper "La Prensa" described how a Spanish-owned coffee 
plantation valued at US$1,500,000 was victimized in much the 
same manner as in the ICADESA/Kollnesher case.  Similarly, 
two attempts to appropriate corporate holdings (land 
belonging to defunct Nicaraguan bank BANIC and the Nicaraguan 
Cement Company) were thrown out by a judge from the city of 
Tisma in Masaya Department.  The acting lawyer seeking to 
finalize the illegal transaction was J. del Socorro Caceres 
Zuniga, reportedly a colleague of FSLN lawyer N. Turcios.  In 
most instances, there is FSLN involvement following the 
accusation of failure to pay wages to a property caretaker. 
The accuser states that no promised salary was received; a 
lawsuit follows.  Legal jurisdiction over the geographical 
entity or parties typically is fraudulent.  Outright document 
tampering to alter cadastre numbers also occurs, making it 
appear as though a given property is involved, while in 
reality another is being bought and sold.  (The nominal 
notary public in one such transaction had been dead for more 
than forty years.) 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Property owners in Nicaragua continue to be 
threatened with loss or violence, thus exacerbating land 
instability and threatening economic development in affected 
areas.  An ambiguous panorama of possible judicial 
malfeasance, combined with old-fashioned greed, is compounded 
by slick magazine ads inviting naive would-be landowners to 
buy low and watch their tropical paradise appreciate. 
Questionable funding and/or inexact border measurements in 
some areas can incite less creative, but commonplace, peasant 
invasions.  Further, indigenous-rights groups also seek legal 
redress for lands they claim were illegally taken from them 
in the southern areas of San Juan and Tola, near the 
northernmost border of Costa Rica. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Many Nicaraguans remember the confiscations of the 
1980's that marked the ominous beginning of large-scale land 
swindling on a government-wide basis.  The 1990 "Pinata Laws" 
legally confirmed the previous confiscation of thousands of 
properties.  With the Pinata as a backdrop, land tenure 
issues still generate fierce social and political debates in 
mid-2006.  Unrest in the real estate arena fuels anxiety 
among recent international investors regarding the outcome of 
upcoming November national elections and the long-term 
viability of investments in Nicaragua, though there has been 
no noticeable downturn in what remains a highly speculative 
market. 
TRIVELLI