Embezzlement and Misappropriation of Funds

Criminal Complaint No. 202300033850 centers on the alleged misappropriation of dividends belonging to Lisa, S.A.—now BDT Investments Inc. as its judicial successor—by Juan Luis Bosch Gutiérrez in his role as administrator, legal representative, and judicial depositary of Villamorey, S.A. The investigation is grounded in binding judicial orders, including Resolution No. 73-2023, which formally admitted the complaint, and a substantial evidentiary record showing that Bosch retained judicially seized dividends for years without complying with his legal obligations.

At the heart of the criminal case is Order No. 2277-2018, which concluded the civil enforcement phase and directed Villamorey to satisfy its outstanding $894,718 judgment through compensation using the dividends judicially seized from Lisa. Those dividends—held under court authority since 2008—far exceeded the amount of the judgment. As early as November 2008, Bosch informed the Eleventh Civil Court that the seized dividends were “available to the Court at any time,” an explicit acknowledgment that he was acting as judicial depositary and that the funds were under judicial custody. When the court later determined that the retained dividends were more than sufficient to extinguish the judgment, Order No. 2277-2018 required Villamorey and Bosch to return the excess to Lisa. They never complied.

The complaint also highlights a pattern of concealment and abuse. Despite owing Lisa the surplus dividends, Villamorey—under Bosch’s authority—executed an unlawful capital increase in 2022 without observing mandatory corporate formalities. This had the effect of diluting Lisa/BDT’s ownership and obscuring the continued retention of funds that should have been returned. GALA, Villamorey’s resident agent, has further obstructed the investigation by failing to produce accounting books and financial statements for 2019–2024, despite a prosecutorial order issued on July 3, 2024 requiring their disclosure.

From 2023 through 2025, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has undertaken a series of investigative measures: multiple summonses, an Interpol location request due to Bosch’s repeated unavailability, requests to all civil courts for documentation, verification-of-address commissions, and interviews with judicial officers. Notably, court officer Javier Castillero confirmed in his February 2024 and February 2025 interviews that the civil case ended definitively in 2018; that the seized dividends exceeded Villamorey’s judgment; and that all judicial bonds were lifted in 2019, leaving no legal measure authorizing the continued retention of the funds.

To date, Bosch has refused to provide an interview, invoking constitutional rights, but has not accounted for the dividends under his custody or fulfilled his duties as judicial depositary. The criminal investigation remains active, focusing on potential violations under Panamanian law governing misappropriation, unlawful use of assets, and breach of fiduciary obligations by individuals who, as judicial depositaries, manage assets under the State’s authority.