Did a judge in the Crucitas mine case leak trial information to Industrias Infinito?

Costa Rica opened a judicial investigation due to the possible leak of information during the Crucitas gold mining trial early this year. 

Moisés Fachler, a substitute judge in the trial, allegedly leaked a draft of the Supreme Court’s Civil and Administrative Law Branch (Sala I) sentence to representatives of the Costa Rican gold mining company Industrias Infinito, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Infinito Gold, Inc. The daily La Nación reported Thusday that Fachler has been the lawyer of Juan Carlos Obando, Industrias Infinito’s general manager.

Fachler resigned as a magistrate after ex-Industrias Infinito consultant William Méndez revealed the information to Telenoticias, Channel 7.

Obando currently is serving one year in prison for corruption regarding a different company he managed.

Industrias Infinito has been trying since 2002 to begin gold mining in Las Crucitas, near the Nicaraguan border. The Sala I ruled against the mining project in January, but the company appealed the sentence leaving the project in limbo.