Two days before the capture of David Murcia Guzmán, the defense team of DMG, the company that has been at the center of the pyramid scheme scandal in Colombia, held a press conference in Bogotá to present the foreign partners and expansion plans of the company. With this, Murcia sought to project an image of solidity in the midst of the crisis, and he tried to explain the origin of his money. According to them, the interest of foreign partners in investing was a result of the increasing good will of the DMG name.
What is incredible is that, judging by the international operations that Murcia was able to consolidate, it looked like he was determined to realize his dream of arriving in 100 countries during the next ten years. The authorities’ theory is that such an expansion is one of the keys for explaining Murcia’s illegal activities.
Setting up businesses by the dozen in each country where they had a presence, the multimillion dollar cash transactions and the movement of capital between countries would be the strategy for a crude form of a never before seen money laundering scheme.
The surprising change Murcia experienced since 2005 was accompanied by an active international agenda that began in February that year with his first trip to Panama. That was how his mysterious international expansion began. After Panama he went to Ecuador, Venezuela and Mexico and announced operations in Brazil, Peru and in Belize. It was impossible to verify the transactions that Murcia announced in these latter three countries. For example, in Peru there is no record of commercial registries under the name DMG. In Belize, where the most recent operation took place, it is only known that there is where he recently channeled the bulk of his clients, and where he paid rewards only in return for client referrals. It was not even necessary to buy his famous pre-paid cards there to get paid, which was the usual way he was able to take in peoples’ money in Colombia.
In Mexico, at the address where DMG announced its operations in the exclusive Polanco sector of Mexico City, they hesitate when they are asked about the controversial company and say that what operates there is a business by the name of Monedero de Negocios. No further information is given regarding its activities.
The wave of news from Colombia affected the Venezuela operation, where this week the Caracas office was closed and the set-up of offices on border towns with Colombia and in the Amazon region was suspended. In Ecuador, the five offices he had were raided. In particular, the local police is investigating its office in Lago Agrio, a town near the Colombian border, which became famous because that is where the camp of “Raúl Reyes” was located. “Reyes” was a high-ranking FARC leader who was killed in a cross-border raid earlier this year by the Colombian Army. According to a local intelligence report, there are connections between DMG and Gilma Montenegro V., a Colombian woman who is wanted by Interpol for arms trafficking with the FARC.
The Panama connection
Murcia established his operational center in Panama. His emporium was supported by four people who were key for its international expansion. The first is the Colombian Luis Hugo Pinto, who has accompanied Murcia ever since he left La Hormiga, a small town in Colombia where DMG began its operations. He is his main advisor and several people have told SEMANA how Murcia would wait to receive his counsel before making some decisions. In addition, he is involved with money transfers to Panama. Pinto was in his apartment in an exclusive sector of Panama City until last week, but now the property is up for rent. For the past year and a half he knows nothing about DMG, he told the local press.
Another of the advisors is the lawyer Jorge Alexis Garrido. His firm, Garrido-Garrido, appears as the representative regarding tax matters for the majority of Murcia’s firms with the Panamanian government. The position is known there as resident agent. In addition, people close to Garrido figure as directors in Murcia’s companies. The lawyer was a victim of an attempt on his life last week when he left a disco that he owns. Someone put a gun in his mouth, but as a result of the ensuing struggle, the shot seriously injured him, but he did not die. Local authorities are confirming versions that it was because of his activities in DMG. SEMANA looked for him in the hospital where he remains confined, but he sent a message that he was not available for interviews through the guard who watched his room.
One of the closest to Murcia in Panama is the Brazilian Alexandre Ventura Noguiera, someone with whom he identified not only because of his age (Ventura is 34; Murcia is 28) but also because of his lifestyle. According to society magazines, Ventura has the biggest wardrobe in Panama City and has appeared showing his collection of imported shoes and suits. His original business was the sale of luxury automobiles. People say that they have seen him in an exclusive Aston Martin, and the cars in which Murcia has been seen in Panama City would be connected to him.
In Ventura’s office, there are photos of him together with celebrities such as Mel Gibson and Enrique Iglesias. Because he is one of the salespeople for Donald Trump’s real estate project in Panama, there’s also a photo of him with the magnate and his sons. Ventura has had legal proceedings in Spain since 2006 in the Comisión de Prevención de Blanqueo de Capitales e Infracciones Monetarias, a money laundering prevention entity. His lawyer told SEMANA that this was a result of a minor incident involving the transport of money and that he had not paid sufficient attention to the matter to resolve it for once and for all. He and his Russian partners face a suit for embezzlement for one and a half million dollars placed by the previous owner of Homes Real Estates, a business that is now owned by Ventura. With his business he launched the promotion of a hotel project for DMG in which he assures that the singer Gilberto Santa Rosa was involved. At the beginning of last week he was one of those who announced multimillion dollar investments in Murcia’s business to buy the DMG franchise in Brazil and in Panama, but after the arrest of Murcia he said through his lawyer that everything was frozen.
Finally, the other pillar of the operations in Panama is the automobile salesman Ernesto Chong. His firm, PMC Group, was the link with the Colombian firm Cambios y Capitales that according to U.S. authorities is related to the drug trafficker Juan Carlos Abadia, alias “Chupeta.” Chong arranged so that the money exchange company would open branches in Colombia within the DMG offices and DMG clients would unknowingly transfer their contributions to a real estate company in Panama. Colombian authorities consider the opening of these offices illegal.
In this universe of countries, authorities who are investigating Murcia’s possibly illegal activities are focusing their attention on businesses and alliances. There they hope to find the secret component of DMG’s success.