UPDATE: The Costa Rica Star spoke with the owner of the Out of Bounds Hotel in San Rafael Escazu and she stated that they are closed for repairs at the moment and no clients are staying with them. She is in the process of renovating the Hotel and looking for a buyer, but also they will be taking clients starting Monday morning. The information from this article was taken from The Detroit News, however we were able to speak with the owner, and this is simply not the case. The pension fund thief may still be at large here in Costa Rica.

Detroit— A businesswoman accused of fleeing the U.S. with $5 million from a Detroit pension fund is holed up in a mountainside resort in Costa Rica and protected by armed guards, federal court files show.

The records help track the trail of Teresa Kastanes, a South Carolina businesswoman who along with her husband fled to a Caribbean island in March. Their flight triggered a search for missing Detroit pension fund money and a two-month manhunt before her husband, George Kastanes, returned to Florida in May and was arrested by federal agents.

In a federal court filing, the woman’s lawyer said she needs armed guards because a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent inquired about her and because pension fund lawyers are trying to find her.

It is the latest twist in a failed $10 million Detroit pension fund investment that led to the suicide of Kastanes’ business partner, lawsuits, arrest warrants and a search for missing money.Teresa Kastanes is living in the Out of Bounds Hotel in San Rafael Escazu, Costa Rica. Located in the Escazu mountains, the hotel’s rooms cost from $85 to $115 a night.

Her husband was pressured to pinpoint her location after telling Detroit pension fund lawyers he didn’t know the address.

Teresa Kastanes has stayed in at least three locations since fleeing the United States in March.

The couple first checked into an oceanfront resort on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts before traveling to San Jose, Costa Rica. She later moved to the Out of Bounds resort after an ICE agent started asking questions, her lawyer Joseph Brien said.

“Because this is an ongoing investigation, we would not be able to comment,” ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said.

George Kastanes was involved in a Police and Fire Pension Fund loan in 2008 intended to buy and restore more than 1,400 foreclosed homes in Metro Detroit.

Instead, many of those homes are facing foreclosure, or demolition, after his partner, Detroit businessman Abner McWhorter, committed suicide in August amid accusations he was involved in a Ponzi scheme that defrauded the pension fund.

While holed up in St. Kitts, George Kastanes told The News that McWhorter secured the $10 million pension fund loan by paying a $100,000 bribe to Bernard Kilpatrick, the father of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Bernard Kilpatrick’s lawyer has previously said his client had a legitimate business relationship with McWhorter.

The News has learned federal agents are investigating whether the alleged bribe money came from an accused international heroin dealer.

Investigators are probing whether McWhorter borrowed the $100,000 from Macomb County resident Carlos Powell, who was indicted in January and accused of heading a large-scale drug ring, sources said.

George Kastanes has said he didn’t flee with any pension fund money.

Teresa Kastanes is living in Costa Rica so she can receive low-cost treatment for the bowel condition Crohn’s disease and hepatitis C, which affects the liver, her lawyer said.

She sought treatment in Costa Rica because she does not have health insurance in the United States, her lawyer said.

“Her current location, though more expensive, includes armed security well able to assure her safety and privacy,” Brien wrote in a court filing Sunday.

A spokesman for the Detroit Police and Fire Pension Fund declined comment.

Source: Detroit News