Wealthy gunshot victim
getting detailed investigation


Agents are pulling all the stops in their investigation of multi-millionaire John Felix Bender, who died in his home in  La Florida de Barú, Pérez Zeledón.

Bender, 46, and his wife, Ann, lived in an 8,000-square-foot home that had walls of glass. The five-level home faces a 600-foot waterfall, according to The New York Times that did a short article on the property in September 2000.

The mansion is set on 5,000 acres that Bender and his wife turned into a private wildlife refuge, called Refugio de Vida Silvestre Boracayán. Scientists had access to the refuge and some studies led to academic publications.

Bender was a math whiz who had a system for buying securities. He was known to make money going against conventional wisdom. At one time he ran the Amber Arbitrage Fund, but left the business after he suffered a stroke in 2000, according to The Wall Street Journal. Bender had tight security at his refuge in La Florida and had been in Costa Rica for at least eight years.

Investigators were reported to be concerned with the way Bender was shot in the right side of the head. They said that he was left-handed and that there were other inconsistencies in the case.

Colon now is too volatile
for running a business

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I am surprised that your publication does not find the foreign currency exchange in Costa Rica a daily news worthy item along with weather. (The two most important issues in Costa Rica, right?)

For expats and Costa Ricans alike the dollar-colon relationship directly impacts our cost of living in Costa Rica and is not included into Costa Rica’s inflation index.

One presidential candidate, Otto Guevara, is promoting the U.S. dollar as the national currency of Costa Rica much like Panama, El Salvador and Guatemala. It would certainly make investing and purchasing more predictable than the extreme fluctuations we now experience.  One week ago the U.S. dollar was pegged at 573 and today, Friday the 15th the dollar buys only 552 colons. (A drop of 21 colons in one week.)

In real terms, a 25,000 colon expenditure a week ago = $43.63. That same purchase a week later = $45.29 That is a $1.66 price increase in one week.  While many goods and services are sold in dollars, the sales price is typically pegged to the value of the colon. These value extremes are causing havoc among investors as well as international trade.

We are a country that lives from international trade and tourism. Therefore longer term predictability of costs is essential to a healthy economy. And, more so during a period such as now when pricing of products and services is so terribly critical to the sales process.

For example: I import my products in dollars and sell in colons. It is a shot in the dark how to price my product to the public and still be price competitive since there is so little predictability.  Exporting is even worse.  Products are exported in dollars and when the Costa Rican product or service becomes more expensive because the dollar buys less, the results are to be priced out of many markets.  This includes tourism that pay in both dollars as well as in colons.

There are but few companies in Costa Rica who truly influence the currency exchange ratios and they throw askew any chance of even short-term planning for the mid to small businesses, not to mention consumers. When companies like Intel deposit large quantities of dollars to pay a major supplier or even its taxes, the colon goes up in value. However, it is an artificial value since soon after larger Intel like companies pay out the dollars, the colon is again devalued. Not being privy to the plans of Intel, HP, Boston Scientific, etc. the rest of us must remain reactionaries who cannot control our own monetary destiny.

One of two things needs to happen. Either go to a dollar economy instead of this mixed bag we now have, or go back to the controlled value of the colon and forget the floating Banco Central bands. This limited free market policy might help the government’s books, but it is not helping either enterprise or the consumer.