Corruption

In the middle of my dealings with Ms. Laterra, it became clear that she is a magnet for fraud and theft allegations. All attached to one variation or another of her full name: Lourdes Lorena Laterra Sanchez

An estimated 25+ victims

Crimes ranging from outright stealing solvency deposits, selling fake land titles, using forged documents to try to steal client funds, etc.

But how could this occur over such a long period? Surely if Ms. Laterra were guilty of a crime she would have criminal convictions. If there were many victims, some would assume she would even be jailed by now.

You don't know Paraguay.

When Ms. Laterra felt I was insinuating that she was (gasp) "a criminal", she sent me what many of us would commonly refer to as a Criminal Clearance Certificate.

"See!", she exclaimed, " If I was a criminal, I could not provide a clean criminal clearance certificate!

Fair point, except apparently in Paraguay, a criminal can immediately obtain one after being released from jail.

Once they have served their sentence, they are "clear". Hence, they have the ability to receive a clean criminal clearance certificate.

This was explained to me by someone who should know. If it's shown to be mistaken, I'll retract. But it sounds par for course.

So surely Ms. Laterra would have been arrested by now. Yes, she has been. She even pled guilty to using a forged document and had her mugshot taken. But as far as I can tell does not have any criminal convictions. How could this be possible?

The technical explanation is that since Ms. Laterra admitted to committing the crime and was, at that time, without a criminal record, the prosecution agreed to "extinguish" the conviction.

That means Ms. Laterra did commit a crime, admitted to committing the crime, and in return she was given a break.

A less technical explanation for Ms. Laterra not having any known criminal convictions is CORRUPTION.

A criminal can avoid arrest by paying off a police officer at the scene.

A criminal can avoid a case going to trial by agreeing to a plea then having a charge/conviction extinguished. That might also involve a bribe.

 A criminal can avoid conviction by bribing a prosecutor to sit on a case or cases and never bring them to trial.

Currently there are a number of criminal complaints against Ms. Latera sitting within the Prosecutors Office in District 11 in Asuncion. The Prosecutor is neither dropping the charges nor proceeding.

Why not?

If you guessed corruption, you might be correct.

A smart criminal will also choose to pay off victims just prior to them going to the police or prosecutor.

This is a favorite tactic of Ms. Laterra.

Big picture, her hustle goes like this.

Perform 80%-90%  of the work contracted to do, often to a decent standard. This garners the service fees, general goodwill, and positive reviews.

Rob the remaining clients using one of a number of practiced methods. The targeting of these "clients" will come down to the circumstances of the day and the characteristics of the "client".

Those that are older, not proficient in Spanish, living abroad, possibly not well traveled, tending to make better victims.

Then Ms. Laterra will use a percentage of stolen funds to pay off or fight the most aggressive victims. The ones who won't accept being victimized.

But it is a bad business model that can not succeed in the end. Because once a critical mass of victims accrue, so does the negative publicity, as well as the criminal and civil allegations.

Business is bound to fall off. Naturally income decreases. That leaves less money to pay bribes and fund cases, and then it all falls apart.

You are witnessing the unraveling.