There is a general consensus in Nicaragua that the dictatorship remains in power due to the force of arms in the hands of the Police, and to a lesser extent the Army. The current chief of Police, Francisco Díaz, is an “in-law” to Ortega- his daughter is married to one of Ortega´s sons. But there is some recent news that in practice he has been sidelined, due to alcoholism, and a retired police commissioner and current Advisor for Nicaraguan Security Matters, Horacio Rocha is the real person in charge. The head of the Army is General Julio Avilés. Both are under US sanctions for human rights abuses and corruption. This article focuses on a shell company in Panama formed by close relatives of these two key players in the Police and Army, dating back to 1997, showing that this type of activity has a long history and is not just a recent phenomenon.
By Artículo 66, April 24, 2023
Ana Isabel Argüello Yrigoyen wife of the retired general police commissioner and current Minister Advisor for Nicaraguan Security Matters, Horacio Rocha; and Bolìvar Antonio Avilés Castillo, brother of the Chief of the Army of Nicaragua, Julio Avilés, had a shell company in Panama for 16 years, together with “front men” of that country. A Panamanian expert points out that the shell companies created in Panama have been used for “Illicit activities”.
Offshore enterprises, also known as “shell companies” even though they are not illegal, are the best way to hide ill-gotten assets or money in order to launder it or avoid taxes using proxies and hiding the identities of the true owners. For that reason, thousands of this type of companies are created in the so-called “fiscal paradises” like Panama and precisely there, in the canal country, is registered a mercantile society called “Asesoría Gerencial Centroamericana S.A. [Central America Management Consultancy, Inc.]. This documental investigation of Artículo 66 determined that this enterprise was registered with a Board of Directors presided over by Ana Isabel Argüello Yrigoyen, a name that matches the name of the wife of the current Minister Advisor for Security Matters of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, Horacio Sebastián Rocha López.
In a review of public records exposed through specialized web pages in the search for this type of enterprises, like Panama Data, Opencorporates and mercado.com.pa, it was confirmed that on the Board of Directors of the Asesoría Gerencial Centroamericana S.A. which includes 6 other people is also Bolívar Antonio Avilés Castillo, a name that matches the brother of the current Chief of the Army of Nicaragua, Julio César Avilés Castillo.
The Shell company operated for 16 years
According to the data publicly exposed through mercado.com.pa the offshore enterprise Asesoría Gerencial Centroamericana S.A. was constituted on May 7, 1997 and formally registered on the 14th of that same month under company number 330325 and page number 330325S. The company was registered under the category of Incorporation for perpetuity, with an address in the Province of Panama, in the Republic of Panama.
Likewise, OpenCorporates on their website within the data that remains public shows that the Asesoría Gerencial Centroamericana S.A. Incorporation was dissolved on March 26, 2013. In other words, the company remained active and operating for approximately 16 years.
The Offshore partners
The Board of Director of the Offshore Asesoría Gerencial Centroamericana S.A. was composed of 7 people who covered the 12 positions available, which is why some of them held several positions at the same time.
Ana Isabel Argüello Yrigoyen held the post of the President of the Board. The founding charter established that the president was also the legal representative of the shell company, and held the post of director.
Argüello Yrigoyen is the second wife of Horacio Sebastián Rocha López (Rochón), General Commissioner and Assistant General Director of the National Police until 2014, the year in which the dictator Daniel Ortega moved him into retirement, to later in 2022 call on him again and name him Minister Advisor for Security Matters, a position in which he went back to dressing in a police uniform and appears now, in his rank as general commissioner, by the side of the Chief of Police and in-law to the dictator, Francisco Díaz Madríz.
Sources close to the police institution state that the person who really is in charge of the Police is Rocha López and even serves from an office located in the Plaza El Sol building, close to the office of Díaz Madríz, something which for some analysts is illegal, because “Rochón” is officially retired from the police and there is no article in the law that would allow him to be included as an active officer.
The second board member of the shell company was Bolívar Antonio Avilés Castillo, who also figured as the convener of meetings.
Who are Argüello Yrigoyen and Bolívar Avilés?
Argüello Yrigoyen is a lawyer with an emphasis on finance. Up until September 2015 she was not a recognized person in national politics, until the dictator of Nicaragua on September 3rd signed presidential decree 140-2015 through which he named her Vice Minister of the Ministry for Development, Industry and Commerce (MIFIC). That decree was published in the Official Record on September 7, 2015.
The Vice Minister did not last long in that post, because just one month and 16 days later, on November 19, Ortega signed presidential decree 208-2015 which removed her from that post. That removal as Vice Minister of MIFIC was published in the Official Record No 228 on December 1, 2015.
Nevertheless, he did not leave her unemployed, because in that same Official Record Ortega ordered Presidential Decree 209-2015 published, where he named her Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and in addition rewarded her by sending her in the company of her husband, at that moment retired General Commissioner Horacio Rocha, who he named, through Decree 210-2015, General Consul in that same country. An orgy of nepotism, like Ortega and his officials enjoy.
Once again, the nomination was for a short period of time, because through decrees 86 and 87, published in the Official Record number 66 on April 11, 2016, the dictator cancelled their respective nominations of the couple. They were only in those diplomatic posts for four months.
The lawyer Argüello Yrigoyen founded her off shore enterprise in Panama in 1997, years in which Horacio Rocha had become head of security and very close to the president of Nicaragua at that time Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo, who at the end of his government in 2002, was processed for corruption. During the investigations against Alemán at least one shell association was discovered, the Fundación Democrática Nicaragüense (FDN) in Panama, through which the liberal strong man had hidden money resulting from acts of corruption for which he was tried and sentenced to 20 years in jail, a sentence which he did not serve because he was absolved once Ortega returned to power.
In addition, Argüello Yrigoyen kept her offshore company going until March 2013, that is 6 years after Ortega returned to power and her husband, Horacio Rocha, was still assistant general director of the Police.
According to documents that Artículo 66 was able to obtain in searches through the internet, Argüello Yrigoyen, while she was an “extraterritorial business person” also practiced her profession as lawyer and public notary, because in 2006 she appears certifying minutes of boards of directors in the process of the business fusion of the Empresa Nicaragüense de Telecomunicaciones S.A. (ENITEL) which absorbed the companies Servicios de Comunicaciones de Nicaragua (SERCOM) and Telered de Nicaragua S.A. This act appears in Official Record No.66 of April 3, 2006.
Currently, the former minister, former ambassador and former offshore businessperson, who according to her identity card No 001-140656-0013W is nearly 67 years old, is officially retired and does not appear in the data base of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS) as a contributor, but continues serving as a business women, now inside the country as a member of the Board of Directors of the ASSA Nicaragua Insurance Company, as confirmed in the official website of the Nicaraguan branch of this business and she is also registered as such in the Superintendency of Banks and other Financial Institutions (SIBOIF).
The ASSA Nicaraguan insurance company, previously called Metropolitana Companía de Seguros S.A., now belongs to the ASSA group, which has its principal bases for operations in Panama, as indicated on their webpage.
The brother of the General
Bolívar Antonio Avilés Castillo, a partner of Argüello Yrigoyen in the Shell company Asesoría Gerencial Centroamericana S.A. registered in Panama, is one of the younger brothers of the Army General Julio César Avilés Castillo, who commands the armed forces since 2010, when he was named to that post by the dictator Daniel Ortega and who keeps him in that post for a third consecutive period, for which he reformed the military law which established a single five year term in that military post.
General Avilés has now been in charge of the Army for 13 years and has become one of the most trusted people of Ortega, to the point that he was pointed out as being an accomplice to the dictator and supporting him in the repression against the demonstrators who rebelled in April 2018, and in corruption, for which reason the Government of the United States sanctioned him on May 22, 2020.
His younger brother, Bolívar, about to turn 53 years old and born in Jinotepe, Carazo, as indicated in his identity card No. 041-240570-0005X, also started a military career, doing 6 years of study in the Carlos Fonseca Amador Military Vocational School (EMCFA) in Cuba, the program known as Los Carlitos, where adolescents were trained with a view to continuing higher military studies. He was a classmate there with Rafael Ortega Murillo, son of the dictator couple.
Nevertheless, on returning to Nicaragua in 1990 he decided to study Law in a private university, which is why he currently is a lawyer.
In other words, in 1997 at the age of 27 he would have spent 2 years as a graduate from the university as a lawyer and was already establishing an extraterritorial company in Panama.
Not much is known about his activities in Nicaragua, and on the internet and social networks there are not even photos of this person. Nevertheless, in a database of employees of the General Customs Office (DGA), updated on March 20, 2017, he appears as the coordinator of the technical area of the General Audit Office of that state entity.
Also in the database of INSS, updated in February 2023, Bolívar Avilés appears contributing with a salary of 80,000 córdobas a month, as an employee of the Nicaraguan Energy Institute (INE).
In addition, “El Chícharo” as they called Bolívar in Cuba, has been pointed out by dissidents as one of the principal commanders of the paramilitaries who persecuted and massacred the popular protestors during the rebellion of April 2018 in Jinotepe, Carazo.
His family relationships have even allowed him to challenge the disciplinary commission of the Supreme Court. A source that knows him in his work as a lawyer indicated that he repeatedly fails in his duty to provide properly and in a timely fashion the reports of his legal documents and they have never sanctioned him.
The other “proxie” partners
The Offshore firm of Argüello Yrigoyen and Avilés Castillo filled up their board of directors with people who those who know about this type of businesses called “true proxies”.
For example, the resident agent was Irene Stanziola, a lawyer who appears in a total of 1,040 posts or connections on boards of directors of active or inactive enterprises, registered in Panama.
An internet search showed that Irene Stanziola is a lawyer specialized in being a registering agent with “qualification number” 928, activated on September 30, 1982. She also appears related to the Stanziola and Associates Law Firm.
Prior to the publication of this report, Artículo 66 tried to obtain the version of the Panamanian lawyer Irene Stanziola. We called her cell phone and her office which appear in the directory of lawyers of Panama, but it was impossible to communicate with her.
Then we sent her an email with the usual questions which she could answer about her connection to the society with Ana Isabel Argüello and Bolívar Avilés. She had not responded at the time of publication.
The Panamanian investigative journalist Rekha Chandiramani, who during her journalistic work has been able to get to know the system for business registration in Panama, consulted for this report, points out that the activity of registering, and even “participating with your name” on the part of registering lawyers in order to establish offshore enterprises in the canal country is not illegal, nevertheless she considers it “anti-ethical”.
She explains that many lawyers have registered as “nominal directors” (proxies), a figure allowed in Panama, even including low-level people who work as janitors of the offices of lawyers. In other cases, the lawyers themselves are named in board posts of enterprises that they themselves are helping their clients create, and charge for lending their names.
Miguel Ángel Jiménez, one of the board members and at the same time the treasurer of the Asesoría Gerencial Centroamericana, also holds post in 10 other offshore companies, right there in Panama. Artículo 66 was not able to establish whether this person has Nicaraguan or Panamanian nationality, because in the database of INSS there are three people whose names match exactly, of whom two work for the State in lesser posts and the third in a private enterprise, also in a lesser post.
A third board member is Martha Rosa Monroy, and in this case, there is a noteworthy aspect; in the post of secretary of the board appears another Martha Rosa Monroy Castillo, very similar names, but neither of the two appear in other posts in Panama nor in the database of INSS.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ for their English acronym) in a publication on their official website where they explain outstanding aspects of the experience that they had in the analysis of leaks about the Pandora Papers, Paradise Papers, Bahama Leaks, Panama Papers and Offshore Leaks, they say that “names can have typographical errors or be poorly written, but this is how they appear in the original databases which the ICIJ accessed.”
The Asesoría Gerencial Centroamericana has on their Board of Directors two signatories who are Malvina Arosemena de Weeden, who appears related to 53 different posts or businesses registered in Panama. And finally there is the signatory José Guillermo García Valdés, who up until 2020 appeared connected to 139 posts in businesses created in the Panamanian fiscal paradise.
All the sites for business searches in Panama made the distinction that the information that they expose “comes from public sources and are shown in accordance with Article 2 of Law No. 6 on Panamanian transparency.”
What is an offshore enterprise?
Since the Panama Papers uncovered the dark world of offshore societies which the ICIJ published and analyzed, this name and strategy for the biggest leak in the history of offshore enterprises has been in the mouths of millions of people.
The Spanish investigative media La Sexta defines “Offshore enterprises are those which are opened in the name of an interested party (can be a person or another society) in countries where that person does not reside or does not carry out any economic activity.” Its name means outside the territory or “extraterritorial,” which means that it is in another country which is not the country of the owner.
Among the noteworthy characteristics of this type of company are that “they establish their headquarters in fiscal paradises where they pay very few taxes. They have no auditing nor accounting expenses, because they have no obligation to present annual accounts.” Nor are they obligated to hold partner or shareholder meetings.
“Offshore companies are used for a variety of commercial and private reasons, some legitimate and economically beneficial, while others can be damaging or even criminal,” reads the explanation.
Frequently denouncements have been known about “the use of offshore companies for money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and other forms of white-collar crime.”
The Spanish communications media warns that “detailed information about the use of offshore companies is notoriously difficult to find due to its opaque nature.” In addition, they are considered precisely to “preserve the confidentiality of a transaction or an individual.”
It has been demonstrated that offshore enterprises are used for “non-licit” activities.
The lawyer expert on issues of corruption and the former president of the Panamanian chapter of Transparency International, Carlos Barsallo, consulted by Artículo 66, explained that “even though it cannot be said that all offshore enterprises are used for negative activities, nor can one be naïve and not ask the basics about whether this society (company) has a real reason to exist.”
Barsallo pointed out that the issue of “proxies”is not illegal, but he does think it is illogical because it lends itself to opacity.
He noted that the proxies are not always lawyers, but they use people who without being lawyers work for some legal offices and in different secretarial services.
“It has been widely reported since before the Panama Papers. There are people who hold posts in more than 10,000 societies, to give you an example of the magnitude of the issue. In other words, it is something that happens and is not illegal,” stated the Panamanian expert.
He recalled that after the scandal unleashed by the leaking of the Panama Papers, the proxies in offshore enterprises “have been regulated because now they are demanding that this type of `director´ have trainings and there is a Superintendency responsible for monitoring the fact that these people follow some training courses on their duties and obligations, but that is something very recent and is something that is a timid palliative in the face of a profound issue.”
Something about which the Panamanian expert was very categorical was that, more than thinking about whether the shell companies founded in Panama or other fiscal paradise countries have been seen to be involved in illicit activities, “it is already know for sure, as a result of the international evaluations which the International Financial Action Group has done, that the system (to start offshore enterprises) was not sufficiently robust, so that in 1997 (when Argüello Yrigoyen and Bolívar Avilés founded their business) it is not the same as in 2023, where there are greater controls, thus it is a undeniably proven fact (that offshore enterprises were used for non-licit activities) because in the beginning the regulation was very rudimentary.”
He insisted that currently more detailed data is required, in order to know for what purpose that enterprise functions and if that data is not made available it can be thought that an offshore enterprise is being “used for non-licit activities.”
“Front” companies
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism held the first disclosure of shell companies in June 2013 when they published the so called “Offshore Leaks”.
ICIJ warns that “even though many of the activities carried out through extraterritorial entities are perfectly legal, the extensive reports of ICIJ and their media partners for more than eight years have demonstrated that the anonymity granted by the extraterritorial economy facilitates money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and other crimes.”
The characteristics of these enterprises which maintain great secrecy in their management lend themselves to committing crimes on a large scale.
One of these dangerous characteristics is that they can even issue “bearer shares”, which means that a shareholder or owner does not even have to be identified and it is enough that they have in their power a certificate of said shares or assets “which provides one of the deepest levels of secrecy” and provides a great facility for “tax evasion and money laundering.”
Another warning is that “the true owner of a business in the offshore world frequently is kept secret.” This makes evident that possibly even Ana Isabel Argüello Yrigoyen and Bolívar Avilés might not have been the true owners of the enterprise Consultoría Gerencial Centroamericana, but were proxies.
For its part, the specialized website concetosjuridicos.com points out that one of the most attractive characteristics that offshore enterprises have is “privacy and confidentiality, this shows that the privacy law in fiscal paradises shelters Offshore Societies.” Which is why they are not obligated to communicate to the Mercantile Registry of the country the data about their members, directors and shareholders, and especially about their earnings and financial movements.
Offshore enterprises of Panama in Nicaragua
The communications media Confidencial, as part of the ICIJ, in May 2016 published that in the leak known as the “Panama Papers” Nicaragua is mentioned directly in at least 8,717 files of the Mossack Fonseca firm, among them 6,524 emails, 1,518 as PDFs and 245 scanned documents, in addition to other files in different formats.
These allusions refer only to clients, companies or shareholders who provided as a contact some address in Nicaragua. Confidencial identified other Nicaraguans who registered foundations, societies and shell companies in other countries considered to be fiscal paradises. The investigative media was able to establish through the Panama Papers that at least two Nicaraguans linked to Daniel Ortega had offshore enterprises in Panama at the end of the 90s and the beginning of the 2000s, just as occurred with Argüello Yrigoyen and Avilés Castillo. These people are the retired brigade general of the Army, Álvaro Baltodano, and the naturalized Nicaraguan citizen of Libyan origin and relative of the deceased dictator of that country, Mohamed Lasthar. Both continue being functionaries in the Ortega-Murillo regime.