An investment firm created by active-duty and retired Colombian
air force members allegedly defrauded enlisted personnel, civilian
employees and retirees, air force commander Gen. Jorge Ballesteros said
Sunday.
The air force chief said he was among those affected by the
Carlos Bernardo Gaitan Cancino investment firm’s “general failure to
fulfill its obligations to people who gave their money in good faith”
to the company.
The financial services company, which was formed March 4, 2008, by
retired air force Col. Carlos Bernardo Gaitan Cancino, billed itself as
“a national and international investment firm,” Ballesteros said in a
statement released in Bogota.
The air force chief said Gaitan’s partners were his brothers, Lt.
Col. Luis Freddy Gaitan Cancino and retired Specialist 5 Jorge
Francisco Gaitan Cancino, and his nephew, Carlos Rodriguez.
The firm’s partners all “promoted and worked on the company’s
activities, especially the search for people who would provide capital
to meet their” objectives, the air force chief said.
Ballesteros said people entrusted their money to the brothers because they were air force members.
The alleged fraud affected “officers, non-commissioned officers,
civilians, active-duty and, especially, retired” air force personnel,
Ballesteros said.
The air force commander, however, did not say how much money was lost in the alleged investment scheme.
Ballesteros released his statement after the Noticias Uno show broke the story.
Colombia was rocked late last year by the dismantling of the alleged pyramid scheme run by the DMG financial group.
DMG founder David Murcia Guzman was arrested on a number of charges, including fraud and money laundering.
The owners of DMG, which was in operation up until the time authorities
shut it down in November, contend they ran a legitimate financial
services firm.
In addition to its financial businesses, DMG owned an armored car
company, a private security firm and a cable television station.
DMG started off in the southern provinces of Huila and Putumayo, offering investors returns as high as 300 percent.
The Colombian government seized DMG and declared an emergency in
response to the collapse of the pyramid scheme, in which some 3 million
people had invested. (Efe)
