A group of approximately 20 people scammed by Casas Vita demonstrated outside the Public Prosecutor’s Office in San José as a protest against the decision of a judge to release Oscar Villagra, owner of the company.
Gina Cooper is one of the affected victim and she assures they are scared Villagra is going to flee the country without paying the money he owes them, and in her case the sum amounts to 40 million colones for the two houses she bought.
In addition, those affected intend that the Attorney General, Emilia Navas, investigate the prosecutor Jorge Araya, who did not appeal the judge’s decision as he should have done.
On May 24th, the Public Ministry requested preventive custody against Villagra, but according to Mario Valverde, the prosecutor in charge of the case did not correctly justify the measure, so the court had no other option than to release the accused.
Last Tuesday, the Office of the Prosecutor conducted five raids on both the company and in the case houses to gather evidence for the investigation. The case against Villagra and Casas Vita dates back to 2015, when the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) received the first complaints for breaches against the company.
The Office of the Public Prosecutor maintains that it seems the company has sold the same property to more than one person, thus preventing one of them from disposing of the property for which it paid and, at the same time, generating double income from a single asset.
In the investigation, there are two other accused named Vargas Ramírez and Murillo Sánchez, as well as a woman identified with the surnames Solís Gómez.