El Salvador - Former President
About
Francisco Flores was president of El Salvador from 1999 to 2004, a tenure marked by the country’s alignment with United States policy in Central America, the replacement of the Salvadoran currency with the U.S. dollar, and allegations of personal corruption. An Oxford- and Harvard-educated scion of a wealthy family, Flores had earlier held several government positions as a member of the conservative Arena party.
In 2015, a Salvadoran judge ordered him to stand trial on charges of siphoning $5 million into his personal accounts and $10 million into his party’s coffers from Taiwanese government donations intended for victims of 2001 earthquakes that killed more than 1,000. While admitting to having received the funds, Flores denied that the funds were for his personal use and said he made sure that the donations reached the intended recipients. Flores died of cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 56 in January 2016 while under house arrest awaiting trial. The criminal case against Flores was closed upon his death in 2019, and in 2018, a court in El Salvador absolved him of civil responsibility. A judicial investigation into Arena party leaders in connection with the alleged embezzlement of the Taiwanese money is ongoing. The statute of limitations on any criminal charges has expired.
Political Career
President (1999-2004)
President of the National Assembly (1997-1998)
Member of the National Assembly (1994-1999)
In The Pandora Papers
The Pandora Papers show that Francisco Flores was the beneficial owner of a pair of offshore companies, one created in Panama in 2005 and the other in the British Virgin Islands in 2006 after his presidency ended in 2004.
International Consultants In Trade and Competitiveness SA (ICTC) was registered in Panama in 2005. Representatives of the Panamanian law firm Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, or Alcogal, served as directors, which had the effect of concealing the company’s ownership. Leaked files show Flores visited Alcogal’s Panama headquarters in June 2012.
In 2015, the Salvadoran media outlet El Faro reported that Salvadoran financial authorities had found transfers of $874,485 from a bank account of ICTC’s at Multibank Inc. in Panama to an account owned by Flores at a different bank. The Pandora Papers show Flores owned an account at Multibank Inc. by November 2011.
Flores was also owner of International Consultants in Economic and Social Research Inc. (ICESR), created in the BVI in 2006. In May 2014, Alcogal sent a suspicious activity report to the BVI’s Financial Investigation Agency alerting it to Flores’s ownership of the company a few days after a Salvadoran judge issued an international arrest warrant against Flores in the Taiwanese donations case. At that point, Alcogal resigned as the registered agent of both ICTC and ICESR.
Juan José Daboub, Flores’ onetime finance minister and chief of staff, was listed as the legal representative of the Panamanian company, and he also appears in the leaked files as acting shareholder of the BVI firm. Daboub served as managing director of the World Bank from 2006 to 2010. In 2004, he and Flores founded the America Libre Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
In a pair of emails responding to ICIJ, Daboub wrote, “I voluntarily resigned from my participation in the entities [ICESR, ICTC and America Libre Institute] before joining the World Bank as managing director in July 2006, and I did so specifically because I was enrolling in the World Bank in that capacity.” Daboub asserted that everything required by the World Bank as part of its due diligence process for his appointment “was reported and provided in a timely way.”
This Panamanian law firm Alcogal assured the representatives of Francisco Flores that the real ownership of his offshore companies would not be publicly aired.
Secrecy Jurisdictions
British Virgin Islands
Panama
Secrecy Broker
At the heart of the Pandora Papers are 14 offshore firms that help clients establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions. This profile draws on leaked data from these providers:
Discover this Power Player’s offshore connections.
The information on this profile is current as of October 3, 2021. Read more about the Pandora Papers data.