QCOSTARICA – A bill by PAC legislator Laura Guido attempts to qualify as an offense the capture of money from third parties through a pyramid system or “ponzi”. The plan, which gives an example of what happened in the Pietra Verdi case, a company of Brazilian origin supposedly dedicated to the marketing of emeralds and precious stones, which had been recruiting investors for some time, has ceased to make the respective payments.

The initiative would add a final paragraph to article 63 of the law for the promotion of competition and the effective defense of the consumer to classify a scam anyone who “directs, executes or promotes a pyramid business plan or any other analogous” and would impose a sentence of two months to 13 years in prison for those who obtain resources from these structures, depending on the amount defrauded.

According to the project, the pyramid structure occurs when a consumer or user makes “a consideration for the seller, or for a third party, in exchange for the possibility of receiving compensation derived from the membership of other consumers or users to the plan, not the sale or supply of goods or services ”.

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During the presentation of his bill, Guido explained that pyramid schemes lack regulation in Costa Rica and that “unscrupulous people deliver big profits in companies that present themselves and themselves as legitimate marketing systems and investment at several levels, so that deception is difficult for the public to detect. and almost impossible for the authorities to punish ”.

“The most famous case of scam based on a pyramid scheme was committed by Bernard Madoff, president of a prestigious investment firm on Wall Street, through which he raised large investments from a high clientele. level, in exchange for the promise of high rates. back. In 2008, he was arrested and sentenced to 150 years in prison for fraud of more than 64.8 billion dollars from the United States of America, ”explains the explanatory memorandum of the project.

“In May 2021, the General Superintendence of Financial Entities (Sugef) warned of the risks involved in investing in companies that carry out financial intermediation in Costa Rica without any supervision, raising funds to fundamentally multiply it. by incorporating new members of the trading regime pyramid. For this reason, at least 50 complaints from pyramidal companies were sent to the public prosecutor, among which the company Pietraverdi stood out, ”the note continues.

Dozens of Costa Ricans claim to have lost their investments in the Petra Verdi pyramid, when in 2020 a group of businessmen organized to market emeralds, inviting internet users to invest from $ 25 to $ 10,000 for which they promised returns of 20% per month, for a year. However, he stopped paying the interest.

In recent years, this type of pyramid scheme has grown in popularity thanks to a strong social media presence and frequent support from influencers.

These pyramid schemes are different from direct sales and tiered marketing businesses, in which people earn profit through a commission on the percentage of actual product sales, or sales made by their own network of people.

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This tiered class of businesses has been regulated and protected in countries such as Spain, Colombia, and the United States. For its regulation, the legislator Guido presented another bill.

This is the bill on direct sales and multi-level marketing, which aims to regulate companies engaged in this sector of activity, in order to guarantee their legal certainty.

Guido’s idea is for the two projects to work together to create the necessary legal framework to protect direct selling businesses and distinguish them from fraudulent pyramid schemes.

“Direct selling companies are an engine of the national economy. They are the source of income for over 230,000 people in our country and they are legitimate businesses in urgent need of legal protection and mechanisms to differentiate themselves from fraudulent pyramid schemes that seek to take advantage of the population to steal their money. », Commented Guido. .

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Likewise, the legislator has indicated that, in pyramid structures, income is based on the recruitment of new people and not on the sale of products or services.

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