After being convicted of the crimes of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, Minor Vargas Calvo could be sentenced to more than 100 years in a federal prison in the United States. As he is 60 years old today, he may not live to see his native Costa Rica again.

In the early 21^st century, Mr. Vargas was president of the prestigious Deportivo Saprissa, a football team that is currently in the semifinals of the First Division Football League in Costa Rica. Mr. Vargas would later acquire expansion teams like Brujas and Barrio Mexico. He then went after Liberia Mia, another expansion team, and remodeled sports facilities like the Cuty Monge Stadium in Desamparados (where the Santa Ana Bulldogs won Super Bowl IV yesterday with a perfect season).

In between this flurry of sports business activity, Mr. Vargas assumed the presidency of Provident Capital Indemnity, Ltd, a company that allegedly sold financial instruments that would guarantee life settlements. Provident was registered in Dominica, a Caribbean island nation that has often been considered an offshore tax haven. The operations of Provident were based here in Costa Rica.

Provident sold bonds to investors who wished to speculate in the intricate world of life settlement companies. These are financial services entities that purchase individual life insurance policies from people who agree to declare the company as the sole beneficiary. Under a life settlement transaction, a woman could sell her $50,000 life insurance policy to a life settlement company for $5,000 in a lump sum cash payment. The woman remains as the insured in the policy, but once she shuffles off this mortal coil the $50,000 death benefit will go to the settlement company.

Mr. Vargas’ company sold bonds that purportedly guaranteed the availability of funds so that these settlement companies could operate, but the United States Attorney claims that those bonds had no value and that hundreds of investors were defrauded and lied to at all times. Those funds were allegedly diverted to fund Mr. Vargas’ sports investing spree. The total value at which the bonds were sold come up to more than $600 million.

Mr. Vargas was arrested in January of 2011 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. A co-defendant in the case, Jorge Luis Castillo, testified against Mr. Vargas in a plea agreement with U.S. authorities. Mr. Vargas, who has a Ph.D. in Economics, claims that his presidency of Provident was just for marketing purposes, and that he never bothered with the accounting. He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 5^th.

Sources: KTAR (Phoenix) and the Wall Street Journal