Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt
Carlo Quintanilla Schmidt
About
Carlos Quintanilla Schmidt was vice president of El Salvador from 1999 to 2004. Under President Francisco Flores, he supported “dollarization,” the introduction of the U.S. dollar as the country’s official currency.
In the Data
Quintanilla Schmidt is a director and a board member of Fusades Ltd., which was incorporated as a charitable organization in Bermuda in 2008. María Eugenia Brizuela de Ávila, who stepped down as Salvadoran foreign minister in 2003, later was a Fusades director from 2009 to 2011.
The company – which is owned by Fusades International Trust – has an investment portfolio, and its purpose is “to support initiatives and projects whose goals are to promote the socio-economic and intellectual progress and public health of the inhabitants of El Salvador through sustainable development within a system of democracy and individual liberties,” as stated in a 2012 memo.
According to an October 2010 email – one of several marked “CONFIDENTIAL” and exchanged before a visit by the company’s board to Appleby’s Bermuda offices – the intention was "to use the income from the investments to fund” the Fusades Foundation, a conservative think tank.The acronym Fusades in Spanish stands for the Salvadoran Foundation for Social and Economic Development.
In one of the emails, an Appleby employee also noted that financial statements for “the Trust and the Company were consolidated – which we do not believe is appropriate.” According to the latest Fusades financial records in the Appleby database, the market value of the Fusades portfolio in 2014 was $996,788.65 and $250,000 was withdrawn that August.“
In recent years, the Fusades Foundation and the conservative La Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (ARENA) party have supported anti-corruption campaigns, the Salvadoran press has reported.
Quintanilla Schmidt, identified as a Politically Exposed Person in Appleby’s database, is also a lawyer and Appleby’s contact person for Toruno-Steiner Ltd., an investment holding in Bermuda. Its shareholders, Oscar Rene Toruno and Jutta Steiner de Toruno, a prominent Salvadoran business executive and his wife, are listed as “joint tenants.”
RESPONSE
Hatoyama confirmed that he is the honorary chairman of Hoifu but said that “in substance” the title “has no meaning,” because he doesn’t attend management meetings nor is he involved with the company’s business. He also told Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun that Hoifu may have wanted to use his name to “earn trust” in China. Hatoyama said he receives consulting fees in his personal capacity which are regularly disclosed in his tax filings.
Hatoyama said he doesn’t know why the company was incorporated in Bermuda and not in Hong Kong, where it is listed. The company did not respond to requests for comments.
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