Bill to speed up expropriations
reported out of committee


A legislative committee has approved and sent to the floor of the assembly a measure that will let the state expropriate property for public works quicker.

A summary provided by the Comisión Especial de Asuntos Jurídicos said that the state will be able to take over property it needs once it has deposited the money appraisers think the property is worth.

The property owner will be able to take the money at the same time even if he or she disputes the price. Currently the state has to enter into a judicial proceeding to obtain title to the property. The owner still will have the option of going to court to seek an improved price.

Members of the committee noted that many public projects have been held up by court proceeding over expropriation.

There were no negative votes by members of the committee.


Investigators and prosecutors
have cell phones from heliport


Prosecutors are examining six cell telephones police found on two suspects in Asturias de Pococí.

These are the two men who are suspected of being involved in the clandestine heliport and refueling setup that investigators discovered Saturday.

Prosecutors interrogated the men Tuesday morning and then conducted a formal study of the six cell phones.

The results of the study are not yet known, but most devices contain a record of their use.

The Fuerza Pública said they detained the pair Monday afternoon when the two men appear to have been headed to a rendezvous with two men in a vehicle that was parked on Route 32. Police said that when they approached the men in the car, they fled into the mountains.

That is the same as what happened to those men at the heliport Saturday when police appeared. The two men detained Monday are presumed to be part of that group.

They were identified by the last names of Ramírez Sánchez and Vega Jiménez.   Ramírez, a Colombian, is reported to be a helicopter mechanic. Both face up to eight years in prison, said the Poder Judicial.

When police found the hidden heliport, they also found a cabin, firearms, about $50,000 in cash and containers of fuel.

That plus a similar operation discovered in the northwest of the country earlier in October seem to show that smugglers are using a helicopter air bridge to carry drugs north.

Cyberattacks becoming common
as spies seek economic goodies


Efforts to steal trade secrets from U.S. companies continue at a high level and are hitting new targets, in spite of major efforts to stop such industrial espionage. Losing trade secrets hurts the economy by discouraging investments in the research critical to growth.  Some new players are getting into the fray, and the attacks hit a huge variety of businesses from high tech to high fashion. 

Plans for a fighter jet are an obvious target for corporate and other kinds of spies, but experts say industrial espionage also has been aimed at high fashion designers and toymakers, innovative steel makers, food and beverage companies, clean energy research and wind turbine makers.  Corporate spies also are seeking information about the management practices that guide successful businesses.

Mandient corporate security expert Laura Galante says a growing number of companies think security breaches are becoming inevitable.

“2013 was kind of an inflection point for cyber threats and our industry, the cyber security industry, because so many new types of companies were interested in understanding the threat that was their next headache," said Galante.

She says some relatively new players have attacked Western media companies and banks.  The cyberattacks on economic targets are apparently intended to advance political interests of forces in Syria and Iran.

A former federal prosecutor who took many cases of industrial and economic espionage to trial says China is making the most attempts to steal company secrets.  But Peter Toren of the law firm Weisbrod Matteis & Copley says many nations are active in this area.

“I would guess that all of the western European nations are doing it, Russia, Israel is doing it," said Toren.

University of New Haven business Professor George Haley says French spies sought new targets at the end of the cold war. 

“After the fall of the Soviet Union, they had moved their espionage efforts from primarily political espionage to industrial espionage, to benefit French companies.  So France is definitely there," said Haley.

Experts say companies can spend millions of dollars and years of work creating a better computer program, a lighter and stronger kind of steel or other product.  If another company steals that research, the thief can then create a competing product at a far lower cost and gain a price advantage in the market. 

The author of the book “Restoring Our American Dream,” Michael Farr, says industrial espionage also destroys trust and hurts the economy.  Farr is an investment advisor and says without trust, businesses will not take the risks and make the investments needed to create a growing economy and new jobs.