Online sportsbook 5Dimes caught up in Costa Rica money laundering probe

Costa Rica-based online sportsbook 5Dimes has been caught up in a money laundering probe that also involves a director of the country’s national bank.

This week, Costa Rican media outlet Nacion.com reported that Marisol Carvajal Cordero, a 35-year-old local listed as the manager of 5Dimes, had been connected to companies whose Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) accounts were abruptly closed in November after the bank was unable to verify the source of the funds in the accounts.

The report claims Carvajal -controlled companies based in Malta and Dubai transferred a total of $1.53b in 2014 to BCR accounts. Some of this $1.53b was transferred to 5Dmes’s parent company, Red Planet SA, which Carvajal also heads up. The BCR claimed it was unable to resolve the volume of the transferred funds with Carvajal’s managerial status.

Around $67m was transferred from Caravajal’s accounts to Latinamerica Trust & Escrow Company SA (Latco), a company ostensibly set up to handle real estate administration in Costa Rica. The $67m was moved in 25 transfers from the Malta and Dubai companies via banks in Germany, Spain the UK and the United States.