Marcelo Barone
London, June 3, 2012 – A few weeks ago, a friend brought my attention to an article in ABC Color, Paraguay’s largest newspaper. It was about a Venezuelan named Marcelo Barone, who had allegedly vanished with millions of dollars from retirement funds belonging to employees of Itaipu, the massive hydroelectric dam situated along the Paraná River, between Paraguay and Brazil. The story intrigued me, so I reached out via email and connected with Mabel Rehnfeldt, the editor of ABC Digital.
As it turns out, Rehnfeldt, an award-winning investigative journalist, was very interested in my inquiry. Since Barone appears to be based in London, she asked if I could help gather more information about him and his companies, which I happily agreed to do.
Barone (MARCELO ALESSIO SILVIO BARONE SERRA) is Venezuelan, with ID 6.558.248 and a date of birth of 28/11/1963. He is either married to or lives with Elisabel Vasquez Galiño, another Venezuelan, ID 6.240.641, born on 23/09/1967. Both hold dual citizenships beyond Venezuelan: Barone is Italian, and Vasquez is Spanish. Together, they are partners in multiple businesses.
The whole situation with Paraguay began in 2006 when CAJUBI – Caja Paraguaya de Jubilaciones y Pensiones del Personal de la Itaipu Binacional, or the pension fund for Itaipu employees – transferred $4 million to Barone for supposed high-return investments.
In 2007, Barone seems to have convinced the CAJUBI board of directors that his financial expertise was exceptional, leading to another $32 million being handed over. In total, about $36 million was allocated to Barone. In a truly bizarre turn of events, without any due diligence on Barone or his investment ventures, the CAJUBI board approved a “Social Pact” directing funds to his companies, without requiring Barone to sign anything. This meant that CAJUBI unilaterally disposed of $36 million from workers’ funds without even a signed receipt from Barone. Even more concerning, he registered the company that received these funds in Panama just two days after they were approved.
“How extraordinary,” I thought. A shady individual arrives in Paraguay, claiming to be from Panama, asserting he holds a PhD (from where?), and without any background in banking or financial services, proposes a formula that promises amazing returns, and the CAJUBI executives hand him $36 million without even asking for a contract signature?
So I began my investigation. Barone had or has nine companies registered in Panama (link 1, link 2), two in Florida (link 1, link 2), and one in the UK (link). He acquired multi-million-pound properties in Hyde Park (link) and St. James (link) through one company registered in Guernsey (link) and another in the UK (link). That’s four jurisdictions right there.
Barone is not registered as a financial service provider or adviser with the Financial Services Authority in the UK, nor with its counterpart in Florida. Two of Barone’s companies, Plainc Inc. and Plainc Asset Management Inc., have been flagged in alerts to investors issued by the Panamanian Superintendence of Stock Markets (Superintendencia del Mercado de Valores), neither of which has ever been licensed by the Commission or authorized to act as financial intermediaries for securities or investments in Panama.
Barone also registered multiple investment funds, presumably intended for his dealings with CAJUBI. All the funds (Euroinvest Property, Euroinvest Global Diversified, Euroinvest GBP, Euroinvest Alternative Markets and Assets) were registered in Panama, and according to Bloomberg, all are currently inactive.
Although Barone promoted some of his Panamanian companies as being for his “investments,” funds from CAJUBI were never sent to Panama but rather to the US, Switzerland, and the UK, between March 2007 and May 2008, specifically to Resitrust Inc. and Euroinvest Worldwide Inc. at accounts located in Bank of America, Dresdner Bank, and Citibank, respectively.
At this point, it’s clear that CAJUBI executives are deeply entangled in this fraud regarding workers’ pension funds. As Rehnfeldt informed me, 80% of the board is comprised of political appointees, with only 20% being worker representatives. Understandably, Paraguayans are outraged by the excessive wealth and lifestyle of Barone, not to mention the involvement of criminals in this scheme, while the authorities are doing nothing to recover the pensioners’ funds. Beyond the rampant corruption of CAJUBI and Barone, the latter’s operations across multiple jurisdictions highlight the ease with which individuals engaged in transnational criminal activities can function with total impunity. Sources indicate that Barone has also marketed his services in the UK, where he is neither registered for such activities nor does he seem to hold UK residency status.
Barone pays no taxes in Panama, the US, the UK, or Venezuela. Furthermore, based on our research, he is not properly registered to provide the services he claims in any of the jurisdictions where he operates.
Read also: Marcelo Barone and Elisabel Vasquez Galiño wanted in Paraguay