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Canadians denied bail; ex-police chief released
Story by : Angela Corelis
Gonzalo Cuevas Perez, the former subdirector of the Puerto Vallarta municipal
police force, was released on bail of 400,000 pesos Wednesday.
Cuevas was arrested April 19, along with two Canadians, after arriving at the
Puerto Vallarta Airport in a rented Lear jet following a flight from Costa Rica, via
Belize City. After searching the passengers’ luggage, authorities found more than
4.5 million dollars in undeclared cashier’s checks and money orders. Cuevas
said he had no knowledge of the documents and that his luggage only contained
clothing.
Cuevas returned to Vallarta Wednesday, and was seen that evening dining at
Rico MacTaco with friends, family members and his lawyers.
Seventh District Judge Andres Perez denied bail for Alyn Richard Waage and
Patrick Elder, both aged 53, originally from Edmonton, Alberta, but with current
home addresses in Puerto Vallarta.
Judge Perez said bail was refused because of the high probability that the two
men would try to leave Mexico.
Waage is wanted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in relation to an alleged
mortgage scam, an Edmonton newspaper has reported. Commercial crime
investigators in Alberta will seek the extradition of Waage once Mexican legal
proceedings have concluded, the Edmonton Journal said Thursday.
Waage and Elder are being held at the Puente Grande State Penitentiary outside
Guadalajara. Neither has made any comment to the Mexican media since their
arrest.
Under Mexican law, the penalty for non-declaration of funds in excess of 30,000
U.S. dollars is three months to six years in prison.
Mexican police say that Waage told them he worked in investments. He is
reported to have built up a sizeable business infrastructure in Puerto Vallarta
since his arrival three years ago.
The checks and money orders seized by Mexican authorities in Waage and
Elder’s luggage were made out to the Haarlem Universal Corporation, which
purports to be a Panamanian investment company specializing in bond and
currency trading, headquartered in Belize City.
According to information gathered from the Internet, investors in a high-yielding,
Internet-promoted “bank debenture trading program,” known as the Tri-West
Investment Club, were asked to send their funds to the Haarlem Universal
Corporation. The minimum investment was 1,000 dollars and returns of ten
percent a month were promised.
Earlier this year, securities commissions in three Canadian states — Manitoba,
Alberta and Saskatchewan — issued cease trading orders against the Tri-West
Investment Club. The company is also under investigation by U.S. security
regulators.
On its website, Tri-West says it has been operating since 1996 and now has
more than 6,000 members worldwide. Day-to-day operations are conducted by
Jason Kingsley, Mark Goldman and Alan Richards.
A recent addition to the home page of the site advises clients to send their
investments by money order and cashier’s check, instead of bank wire transfer.
The investors were asked to make out the documents to Haarlem Universal
Corporation and send them by courier to a P.O. box address in Belize City. |
