Costa Rica bribery scandal involves Finnish company

Former president arrested

Rafael Angel Calderón

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Costa Rica's former president Rafael Angel Calderón was arrested on Thursday over a bribery scandal linked with the purchase of hospital equipment from the Finnish company Instrumentarium.
      The Costa Rican newspaper La Nación wrote on Friday that Calderón, who led the Central American country between 1990 and 1994, is suspected of bribery and "illegal enrichment". He is suspected of having received a "commission" of half a million dollars, which was paid into his own bank account.
      The money was reportedly part of a fee paid by Instrumentarium to its local representative, and Calderón is claimed to have received his money for pushing for the approval of the purchase of hospital equipment by the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS).
      Calderón has denied any wrongdoing.
     
According to local media reports, the prosecutor in the case is calling for a sentence of six months of house arrest or remand for the former president.
      Suspicions of bribery linked with the Instrumentarium deal have shaken Costa Rica - which has long been seen as a model state in Latin America - for about six months.
      According to local news reports, politicians were bribed in order to win approval of a subsidised loan taken from Finland for the deal. CCSS was granted a loan of about EUR 32 million from the Finnish Sampo bank. The loan was guaranteed by the Costa Rican government, and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs granted EUR 12 million in interest subsidies as development aid.
      The equipment was delivered to CCSS by Fischel Corporation, a company that operates in the Costa Rican capital San José.
     
The fee of EUR 5.6 million paid by Instrumentarium to Fishel has sent shock waves through Costa Rica, where media reports claim that the money ended up in the hands of CCSS administrators, as well as politicians, such as ex-President Calderón.
      Eliseo Vargas, the former head of CCSS, says that Calderón had decided on the fees/bribes.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Foreign Ministry to investigate Instrumentarium deals in Costa Rica (23.9.2004)

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