Fraud cases : Lourdes Lorena Laterra Sánchez
The purpose of the article is to alert the foreigner community of the methods that some people use to cheat foreigners, specifically in the area of applying for permanent residency (PR) in Paraguay.
Specifically, I will expose the modus operandi of a “trusted agent” heretofore referred to as ‘Lorena Laterra.’ This so-called “agent,” called a “gestora” in Spanish, has her own business page and shows herself as an agent who “get it done fast, cheaply, and correctly.”
First case :
The story starts with a person who contacted me for help. I am not going to expose private data of the client, so all names are changed. A person named “Peter” said to me that some “John” has problem with getting documents in Paraguay. Peter asked me if I could help John with the problem. At that time I didn’t know who was doing all the stuff for John. I only knew that things are not moving. I said that I will see what can be done. John said to me that he already has a permanent residency and the only thing left to do is getting entry visa. So he doesn’t understand what’s going on and why it takes so long.
I asked him how he got PR without being in Paraguay. He said that everything was done by an agent which did the needed steps through the Embassy of Paraguay because there were a way to apply for permanent residency even if the applicant is outside. John gave a special attorney power for this agent to do all the process.
This was a first false information I heard. During the lockdown Paraguay issued a resolution 311/20 which clearly says that you can only start your application, but you can’t end the application for Permanent Residency without entering Paraguay. Also, when Paraguay opened his borders for foreigners at the end of 2020, the resolution lose its effect. Nevertheless, Jonh’s agent promised him that you can get your PR anyway. This was a first red flag. So I started digging and asking questions to the client like when he did it, what proof does he have about applying, does he make an bank deposit in BNF and so on.
John answered me that he has a proof of the Bank Deposit in BNF and of the “Mesa de entrada” (paper which you get after applying for PR) from Migration Board. John registered all the transactions and the bills from the agent. Agent or gestor can make a deposit for you in BNF without having special power. The only thing is if the agent does for you the deposit, then after getting your PR, only you are able to withdraw money from the Bank. Also, if you give a special power for withdrawin, your special power has to be registered in “Registro Público” which is an administrative unit of the Supreme Court of Justice. If you don’t speak Spanish, the notary will ask an accredited translator to translate the special power in your language. The translator also have to sign the power and the paper that he traduced. This kind of power are more expensive to do, more time consuming and are registered.
The first thing one can do in John’s case is to check the existence of the bank deposit in Banco Nacional de Fomento. John had a scan of the deposit supposedly done by the agent. This is the first time I saw the name of the agent : Lorena Laterra. Workers of the bank checked the existence of the deposit and they found out the absence of the deposit. PDF was fake. She never did the deposit.
All money sent by John was eaten. He lost around 7000–8000$. Lorena doesn’t deceives to everyone. There is a plenty of satisfied clients who have never been deceived. For this reason some of her clients doesn’t believe that Lorena cheated someone. Be aware!
I personally know of 3 cases of people cheated by Lorena Laterra and 5 more cases I heard about from other people, but they never tried to make their stories public. As I was organizing all the information, I received from her victims, I came to the conclusion that Lorena Laterra is a pathological liar who changes her stories non-stop. She always says what the potential victim wants to hear. From tales about resolving all your problems with documents, to supporting anti-vaxxing ideology (or not), just to please you and your beliefs and to make you trust her.
On her website there is a claim that she is a “translator of the Supreme Court” which is fake. There is an open database in the Supreme Court’s website where you can verify the list of those translators who are accredited by the court in Paraguay. You will not find any “Lourdes Lorena Laterra”. She does not exist there.
Second case :
This case is pretty recent and tooks place in the mid of 2022. I personally interviewed the victim of the fraud. We met in Asuncion.
Here is the trasnscription of the audio (the victim doesn’t want to share his name) :
Me : Okay, let’s start.
Victim : Okay, so… I got a reference from somebody I trusted who gaved me good information before. Always getting good information about residencies, citizenships and things like that…and I don’t know him personally but I have known him in telegram for about years..
(sound of a car)
Victim : ….So he gave me the references to Lorena. I decided to use her…and… you know, she was responsive, very responsive at the beginning.
She told me that I can start the whole process remotely and give her power of attorney…and get a health check in the location where I was…and… send her my birth certificate and that I had to legalize in Canada..and.. to get a criminal record aswell.
So I had all the documents, I’ve sent her what I nee.. what she needed. We waited for the birth certificate, we waited for the criminal records check and it takes more than three months to legalize in Canada. But I started with plenty of time and after about fourt months she had all the documents in her hand and she claimed I had to pay her by the way in three installments.
The first up front.. I don’t remember exactly but let’s say thirty percent. The second is after she recieves all the documents and starts the process.. Let’s call another thirty percent.. it might be fourty.. and the last third hasn’t be payed yet, right.
So….she claimed that she’s started all process and then she found out.. let’s say… three weeks later…that…because my name.. my name of my passport has my first and last name. My birth certificate has my first, middle and last name..and apparently this is a common problem in Canada. And she knew this right away when I sended the documents but she said don’t worry it’s not a problem. We will take care of it. She had this issue before. She said she got a letter from a Canadian Honorary Consul in Asuncion thats states that I am the same person on my birth certificate and my passport. She provided no evidence of that.
And then.. a few weeks later she says that migrations didn’t accept this letter. So we had to do..we had to get permition to stop my application so that I.. that Lorena can hold out the money , the bank deposit.. by the way I’ve sent to her the money for the bank deposit in the… casa de.. casa de..called banco de fomento?
Me : yep.
Victim : and she send me a recieve for that. And she says we have to start all over again with me in person. Applying directly. So…when I was coming anyway we lost all this time. So I came and the first she said she gonna cover the cost of the second application. She made it very clearly she was gonna do that. And then she said okay, we can’t get the letter from the Honorary Consul, so she gonna be using her contact in migration to get them to ignore the missing document. And she claimed that she was gonna get the approval, she claimed that the director herself was gonna issue the approval. And that was supposed to be done by.. if I recall correctly…june thirteen. I have to go back to my notes but it was two weeks ago.
And then we were getting into argument by over chat because she kept changing her story over various things. I asked her to send me information.. I was going to make an investment into cattle industry. I wanted to set up ties to the country in order to prepare for my naturalization. So she was always late into answering, she wouldn’t answering me for day or two days. She said she would send me information.. she didn’t send me information. I was getting upset, she was getting upset. And then she started to say “oh, you know what, okay, listen, I can’t continue, I am losing money, you have to pay me for the second application”. So she changed her story completely. And she said “you know, if you don’t do that I am not going to continue with your naturalization, helping you with naturalization”. So she put me in the difficult situation because the only reason I wanted the residency here is to eventually become a citizen. And I made it clearly from the beginning. So she was pushing me and I was trying to negotiate and first she said “okay, we will share the cost” and then in the same meeting said “no, you have to pay”. She is telling me you have to pay.
So I am really upset, I am making it clear and then she says “I cannot work with you anymore, I am done. I am not continue with your residence process”. So I went to visit a lawyer and that lawyer when he heard my story he said “there is no such thing as applying for your residency while you are not here. It’s not possible”. He said he knows Lorena and he knows few other people that had been scammed by her. Didn’t get into details of who those people were. He send me a link to an article written in newspaper about a year ago that she was put into prison. Of course Lorena denies any her wrongdoing. It’s only one example but he said he has other cases of her currently ongoing.
So I told him I bought a piece of land. He looked at the land code in the cadastral system and itb doesn’t exist. And that’s when I started to panic. So he is a.. one of a felow lawyers, partners, did some investigation for me. Contacted at someone in cadastrial.. works in the cadastrial system and it turns out that none of the documents need to be file or have been filed. The only thing that I have is a document. It’s not a title. Lorena said it was a title. But it’s not a title! It’s an application for some permission.. I don’t remember what is called. It’s not a title and there is a three of four other documents that are missing. So it’s completely fake. And that’s when we started the process of.. with that lawyer.. of filing a “denuncia” at the “fiscalia”.
And we submitted the evidence, he took all my emails, and took all my chat conversations. And now we are waiting for the “fiscalia” to do something. So that “fiscalia” cases are just for the fake land that I spend money on. The land that I don’t actually own. Was claimed that I own but it’s not registered. But there is no.. there is no “denuncia” against her having claims to file my application for residency two times. The first time is fake. And we even contact to the Honorary Consul here in Asuncion by phone. The Honorary Consul said.. First of all he doesn’t know who I am. He is never heard of me. And he doesn’t write this letter that was claimed. That was all lie aswell.
Do you have any cuestions?
Me : No, everything is clear.
There is also an interview about the case at radiostation @Universo970py
Something like 4–5 police reports are already filed at the prosecutor office in Asuncion. Be careful and share this information as many people as you can. This need to be stopped.
