FRANCESCO Pécora, a 39-year-old Canadian investor, has accepted thousands of dollars from citizens of the small town of Paquera on the Nicoya Peninsula, promising to eventually finance development of a university, a hospital, hotels and casinos in the Pacific coast town, La Nación reported.Pécora has offered the Association for Integral Development of Paquera (ADIP) more than $134 million for various business operations, without having demonstrated he indeed has the money. Pécora claims to represent the U.S.-based companyEuro Capital Group, which he said has more money than Bill Gates.“Bill Gates hasn’t got anything,” he told La Nación. “For us, two billion dollars is nothing.”However, no record of the company exists, either on the Internet or with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Still, Pécora says he is under no obligation to provide proof of his fortune.“We’re going to give proof when we want to,” he said.ADIP has already given Pécora some $12,000 in checks.La Nación reported that Pécora is registered as the executive of a Costa Rican company called Grupo Euro Capital F.I., S.A., headquartered in Hatillo, an impoverished San José neighborhood.Pécora said of Paquera, to which he has promised a new ferry that has yet to arrive, “They don’t even know where they are. They’re primitive here. Primitive.” Pécora also has two charges pending for allegedly writing bad checks totaling $55,000. He must present himself before a judge every 15 days and is prohibited from leaving the country, La Nación reported.
